July 14, 2008
Media Contact: Sandi Copes
Phone: (850) 245-0150
Ocala Man Gets 5 Years for Traveling to Meet Child for Sex
~ Man was arrested last July during undercover internet operation in Polk County ~
TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a Marion County man has been sentenced to five years in prison for traveling to meet someone he thought was a child, intending to have sex with that child. David Gerard Godbey was arrested during a July 2007 undercover internet operation in Polk County and pleaded guilty last Friday to using a computer to seduce a child and transmitting materials harmful to a child. His five-year prison sentence will be followed by five years of supervised sex offender probation. Godbey was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
The undercover operation, led by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd's Office, netted the arrests of 25 individuals who, over the course of only four days, traveled to Polk County believing they were meeting a child for sex. Undercover detectives used chat rooms and instant messaging to direct suspects to the location. Godbey, then 30, was arrested after he traveled from his home in Ocala intending to meet a 13-year old girl and have sex with her. He was also charged for sending lewd photographs of himself over the internet to the person he believed was a young teenager.
The two-week-long operation, dubbed “Operation Guardian,” included detectives, officers and special agents from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Plant City Police Department, all working in conjunction with members of the State Attorney’s Office and the Office of Statewide Prosecution. The sentence was handed down by Circuit Judge Michael E. Raiden of the 10th Judicial Circuit.