Orlando, Florida - U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron has sentenced Ross Edward Paulson (60, Wittenberg, WI) to 20 years in federal prison for attempted sexual enticement of a minor. The Court also ordered him to forfeit the cellphone and laptop he had used to facilitate the offense. Paulson pleaded guilty on Nov. 30, 2015.
According to court documents, while visiting Florida in July 2015, Paulson responded to a Craigslist ad. The ad had been placed by an undercover officer posing as the father of a 13-year-old girl who was looking for other men to have sex with his daughter. During a series of online communications, Paulson graphically discussed the sexual activities that he wanted to engage in with the “child." On July 23, 2015, Paulson agreed to meet the “father" and “child" in a parking lot in Brevard County so that he could have sex with the “child." When Paulson arrived at the meeting place, he was arrested.
This case was investigated by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kara M. Wick.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
