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3 Men Accused Of Soliciting Minors For Sex On The Internet

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TBO.com

Published: August 17, 2008

Ryan Gage

Michael Wullschleger

Gustavo Diaz

TAMPA - Three men, including a youth swimming coach, were arrested in Polk County last week, accused of using online chat rooms and instant-messaging programs to solicit minors for sex, authorities said.

Undercover detectives posed as children online and two of the men sent pornographic photographs and webcam images of themselves committing lewd acts, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

Some of the men drove to a house in Polk County to follow through with online conversations, Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news release.

According to the sheriff's office, those arrested Thursday and Friday are:

Ryan Allen Gage, 28, of 7740 Shannon Lane, Zephyrhills. During online chats, Gage sent pictures of a nude man to detectives and asked for phone sex, authorities said. Gage is charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex, receiving a computer statement for the purpose of sexual conduct, use of a computer to seduce a child and three counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor.

Michael Richard Wullschleger, 48, of 1506 E. Sandy Ridge Road, Monroe, N.C., who drove 45 miles from a resort hotel near SeaWorld in Orlando, where he was staying with his wife, daughter and daughter's friend, to Lakeland, where he thought he was meeting a 14-year-old girl, detectives said.

Wullschleger dropped off his family at Disney World on Friday morning and chatted online from his hotel room. Detectives posed as teen girls, and Wullschleger asked whether they had ever been with a man older than 40 and whether they wanted to; whether they were virgins; and discussed watching X-rated movies with them, authorities said.

When he was arrested, Wullschleger told detectives he is employed as a youth swimming coach for the Monroe Swim Team, a nonprofit group in North Carolina, and as a bus driver for the Union County Parkwood School District in North Carolina, the sheriff's office said.

He was charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex, use of a computer to seduce a child and two counts of receiving computer statements for the purpose of sexual conduct.

Gustavo Andres Diaz, 24, of 621 Samuel St., Davenport, drove to Lakeland with a box of condoms in his pocket to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl, detectives said. Diaz chatted online about what he wanted to do with the girl when he arrived at the house and sent several live webcam images of himself committing lewd acts, the sheriff's office said.

Diaz runs a business called Phat Tats that does airbrush tattoos in the Orlando area. He was charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex, receiving computer statements for the purpose of sexual conduct, three counts of transmission of harmful materials to a minor and three counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition.

Judd said more arrests are pending in the investigation dubbed "Operation Marauder."

"Even though most of those who chatted illegally online did not agree to come to the undercover location, follow-up investigation in upcoming weeks will result in their arrests," Judd said. "It would seem that our past operations have been successful in deterring some of these individuals from coming into homes in Polk County to commit lewd acts on children."

On Saturday, a judge placed pretrial release conditions on Gage, Wullschleger and Diaz that included: $20,000 bail on each felony count; no contact with children younger than 18, including their own; no use of computers or access to computers; search and seizures without the need of warrants; no possession of pornography; and calling in three times a week to authorities.

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