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Fired DCF Official Faces New Sex Charges, Called Flight Risk

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By CHRIS ECHEGARAY
and ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2008

Updated: 02/11/2008 08:53 pm

TAMPA - A federal prosecutor said in court today that a former state Department of Children & Families spokesman charged with producing child pornography is a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Prosecutor Colleen Murphy told Judge Mark Pizzo that Al Zimmerman, 41, should be held without bail because he has a "lack of ties, no job, no property, no assets, and no children." She said he's living with his parents.

Al Zimmerman

Zimmerman was accused in a federal complaint today of making sexually explicit photos and videos of two boys who were 16 at the time, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Murphy said Zimmerman often corresponded by e-mail with the boys on his work computer. Zimmerman told authorities he didn't know the boys were underage, Murphy said.

Zimmerman used a fake name when emailing the boys, she said, and told the boys he would sell the pictures and "make money for him and them."

Murphy said Zimmerman has recently seen a psychologist and might have compulsive obsessive disorder.

Wearing a white T-shirt, Nike shorts and sneakers, Zimmerman sat in court with his legs shackled. His attorney, Brian Albritton, said Zimmerman has ties to the community: his parents.

Albritton asked the judge to continue the hearing so Zimmerman's parents could be present. Shortly after the hearing ended, Zimmerman, who grew up in Lakeland, was taken away by U.S. marshals.

The hearing will be continued Wednesday.

Investigators say the incidents took place in 2006 and 2007 and both juveniles were paid in cash or money orders by Zimmerman for the pictures. Zimmerman sent an e-mail to one of the boys and discussed the production of child pornography, payment and how the photographs would be brokered in Germany, authorities said.

If convicted of the federal charge, Zimmerman faces a minimum of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of 30 years behind bars.

Zimmerman had met one of the boys through work, according to a federal affidavit.

Zimmerman, who was fired after his arrest, told investigators he gave the teen money "because he gave a 'crap' about the kid and wanted to make him happy," according to the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in connection with Zimmerman's arrest today on a federal charge.

Zimmerman, a former television reporter, was first arrested Feb. 1 on eight state charges of using a child in a sexual performance. Authorities have said he offered money to two boys, one 16 and one 17, asking them to take pictures of themselves masturbating. Zimmerman was released the next day on $120,000 bail.

Zimmerman then was fired as spokesman for the Department of Children & Families. Officials at DCF said Zimmerman met at least one of the boys through his job with the department. They are investigating the possibility more youths were approached by Zimmerman.

The federal complaint details allegations of Zimmerman's interaction with two teenage boys and raises the possibility that there are more victims who have not yet been interviewed. It says one of the boys told investigators he saw photographs on Zimmerman's computer of an unspecified number of teenage boys he knows. The teen gave the boys' names to investigators, but they have not been interviewed yet, the affidavit states.

The affidavit details explicit e-mail authorities say Zimmerman sent, describing particular poses and activities he wanted depicted in the photographs.

One boy described in the affidavit as a victim told investigators that during an October summit meeting of the task force, Zimmerman provided the teen with his business card with his room number written on it.

Zimmerman invited the boy to his room, provided him alcohol and offered him $200 to perform oral sex on him, the affidavit states. The boy declined, but Zimmerman had another proposition, according to the affidavit.

Zimmerman offered to pay the boy for nude photographs of himself, describing specifically how he wanted the boy to pose, the complaint states.

The teen told investigators he ran away from foster care but continued to communicate with Zimmerman and began to send him nude photographs. He was paid by Western Union and Amscot money services, the complaint states.

As investigators were searching his home and getting ready to arrest him, Zimmerman sent a DCF technician, Michael Hernandez, to his house, according to a federal affidavit. Hernandez encountered investigators in the driveway of Zimmerman's home, the complaint states.

Hernandez told investigators he had been talking to Zimmerman on his cell phone, and "admitted he had called Zimmerman to inform him of the presence of police at" the home, the complaint states. Hernandez said he had told him to watch his house because he was afraid he would be arrested if he returned home. Zimmerman had learned his boss was called to an emergency meeting and became suspicious, according to the complaint.

Hernandez told investigators that two days before the search, at Zimmerman's request, he had put Zimmerman's home computer in a trash bin. Hernandez said Zimmerman was afraid that police would seize the computer in an investigation and that the spokesman did not want police to have access to the computer, the complaint states.

Hernandez "also admitted that two days prior to the execution of the search warrant, he had 'wiped' and reformatted the Dell laptop that the department had assigned to Zimmerman, the complaint states.

Another boy – the one who said his friends were photographed - told investigators he met Zimmerman through a friend in 2006 when he was 15 or 16 and a sophomore in high school, the complaint states. The boy said he and friends would go to Zimmerman's home in Tampa, where Zimmerman would give them alcohol, according to the complaint.

Zimmerman proposed photographing the boy both dressed and in the nude in exchange for cash, the complaint states. The sessions occurred over several months when the boy was 16 and 17 years old. Zimmerman directed the boy how to pose, including masturbation, the complaint states.

The boy said Zimmerman paid him in cash in person and once wired him money via Western Union. Zimmerman also sent cash through the mail, sometimes hidden inside a compact disc case, the complaint states.

The boy saved e-mail messages from Zimmerman and gave them to investigators, according to the complaint. Some of the messages "corresponded with an IP address listed for the State of Florida Department of Children & Families," the complaint states.

In one particularly explicit e-mail listed in the complaint, Zimmerman described a number of possible poses and wrote, "Usually the wilder the photo the higher the price."

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