DCF Worker Faces Porn Charge

TAMPA - The spokesman for the agency that protects Florida's children is accused of soliciting two teenagers to perform lewd acts so he could make child porn, authorities said Friday.

Al Zimmerman, 40, was charged with eight counts of using a child in a sexual performance and was immediately fired from representing the Florida Department of Children & Families. Investigators suspect one of the teenagers is or has been in the DCF's care.

Zimmerman

"It's totally deplorable," said Bob Butterworth, the DCF secretary. "There's absolutely no excuse for this. There were absolutely no indicators. As all of us in the DCF, we were shocked and we were horrified."

A telephone message left on Zimmerman's cell phone by The Associated Press was not returned Friday night.

Zimmerman, who has worked for the DCF since March 2005, turned himself in to authorities about 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Lakeland field office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said FDLE spokeswoman Heather Smith. His parents live in the Lakeland area.

Investigators said at least two victims between the ages of 16 and 17 were approached by Zimmerman at an unspecified date to perform lewd acts that were to be used to create child pornography. Authorities are trying to determine if there may be other victims, Smith said.

Zimmerman, who worked in DCF's Tallahassee offices, was being investigated for some time by the Tampa Police Department, said Sandi Copes, spokeswoman for the Office of the Attorney General.

Copes did not know how long Zimmerman was under suspicion, but said that "a routine undercover operation into child pornography" might have tipped off detectives. Tampa police detectives then contacted the attorney general's CyberCrimes unit to help in the investigation, Copes said.

The investigation became a joint operation involving Tampa police, the Attorney General's Office, the FDLE and the FBI, authorities said.

Zimmerman was being held in the Hillsborough County jail on Orient Road on $60,000 bail Friday night. He faces up to 120 years in prison - or 15 years on each count - if convicted of all charges.

"Every photograph, every image, every lasting impression of a child's sexual abuse perpetuates this horrible crime over and over again," Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a statement.

DCF has faced criticism since 2002, when it was discovered that a Miami investigator had lied about visiting the foster parents of 4-year-old Rilya Wilson. The girl had actually been missing for a year and has never been found.

More recently, former secretary Lucy Hadi resigned after being found in contempt of court for not moving inmates to state hospitals if they were incompetent to stand trial. Before that, Jerry Regier left the position after an investigation showed he accepted favors from contractors. Regier had replaced Kathleen Kearney, who resigned after Wilson disappeared.

Last year, a child protection task force criticized DCF officials because a 2-year-old foster girl was missing for four months before police began searching for her.

Butterworth said he will ask the FDLE to work with the DCF "to conduct a thorough investigation to determine if any child in the state's care has been victimized."

He said DCF is fairly certain that one of the two children has been in state custody at some point.