In the case of a 27-year-old Cape Coral man, arrested during the Lee County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) sting this past May, deputies arrested him even though he didn't even travel to meet a child for sex. Law enforcement officers responded to the man's legal "casual encounters" Craigslist ad, pretending to be a 14-year-old girl, even though the ad said, "age for all women must be 18+ no one under email me plz."
The man repeatedly told the undercover detectives that he was "not OK" with meeting up with an underage girl, but because he didn't immediately end the conversation, he was arrested for utilizing his phone to solicit a sexual act from a child. Detectives went to his house and arrested him as a sexual predator of children.
Prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute on either of the accused charges, yet the accusations and man's name remain on LCSO's online press releases and other media outlets' news stories.