Sheriff: Man showed up ‘buck naked’ for ‘Santa’s Naughty List’ prostitution sting

A Winter Garden man showed up “buck naked” for what he thought was a meeting with a prostitute in Polk County, during a sixday sting dubbed “Operation Santa’s Naught List” that netted more than 100 arrests, the Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.

During a press conference, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters 56-year-old Rodney Davis, a security guard for Walt Disney World, walked up to the front door of a house where deputies were waiting without even socks on his feet.

“He didn’t have a stitch of clothes on, but he was carrying a shirt, I guess in case of an emergency,” Judd said.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office routinely conducts stings targeting men seeking sex with prostitutes or to sexually abuse children. Judd said the occasional roundups aim to disrupt human trafficking.

Seven women taken into custody who were thought to be victims of human trafficking were taken to shelters and connected with anti-trafficking groups for help, the Sheriff’s Office said. Overall, 53 people were arrested for prostitution, 46 for soliciting prostitution and 18 for various other charges.

“From the moment we take these folks into custody, our potential victims of human trafficking are immediately offered services to protect them and to help them break this horrible chain that they’re involved in,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Office said the sting involved detectives posting ads online.

“Our detectives cast

athe side of the van hit him, pushing him into a car parked beside it.

Asked during the FDLE interview why he used deadly force, Wong Shue said he “thought [he] was going to die, ‘cause I felt myself between the two cars.”

Abreu said he also thought Wong Shue was in danger.

“I thought Wong Shue was dead and [Silva] was going to hit Sergeant Peek,” Abreu told investigators.

Silva drove off after being shot, crashing into another car in the parking lot before fleeing out of the plaza. He was found inside the car in a neighborhood about a mile away, dead.

In determining that the shooting fell in line with OPD’s policy governing shooting into moving, wide net out upon the ocean and what we brought in was child predators, deviants, victims of human trafficking and johns,” he said.

According to the Sheriff ’s Office, those arrested were as young as 19 or as old as 70. While 30 live in Polk County, seven were from other states — including Missouri, Pennsylvania and New York — and one was visiting from Ontario, Canada.

Seven of those arrested are accused of attempting to sexually abuse children, Judd said, including five who traveled to the sting house with the intent to rape a child. Among those was 24-year-old Benjamin Castaneda of Orlando, who thought he was meeting a 13-year-old girl, officials said.

Collins cited Wong Shue and Abreu’s comments during interviews about Wong Shue being in danger and unable to move out of the way of the van as Silva peeled out of the parking spot.

The updated policy no longer says that having “no reasonable avenue of escape” authorizes an officer to shoot into a fleeing car, but says “[s]hooting at moving vehicles is highly discouraged and must be the only objectively reasonable and necessary option under the circumstances.”

Investigators deemed the officers’ use of deadly force “objectively reasonable” given the circumstances.