PORT ST. LUCIE — A man found naked in the room of a 12-year-old girl with whom he communicated on MySpace and discussed having sex faces two felony charges, according to recently released arrest and court records.

The victim told police she spent most of a day in late June communicating with a man identified as Barrington Benjimen Smith Jr., 18, of the 500 block of Northwest Avon Avenue in Port St. Lucie.

They arranged to meet, she told police. The victim opened her bedroom window and let Smith in about 12:30 a.m. June 25, records state.
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Robert Payne

The girl’s mother alerted police that day after finding a note from Robert W. Payne to the girl.

In it, he offered her the Xbox and to let her play with his cell phone, according to a police report.

When questioned by detectives, Payne, 26, told police he had exposed himself to the girl on four different occasions and performed a sex act on himself. He also said he once touched the girl’s backside through her clothes.

According to the report, Payne admitted he was attracted to the girl and had a “fascination” with her, which he attributed to being abused himself as a child.

Payne is being held in the St. Lucie County jail in lieu of $125,000 bail. He faces one charge of molestation and four counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition.

Jeremias Mendoza-Esteban

The girl’s mother walked into her daughter’s bedroom on Saturday afternoon and found Jeremias Mendoza-Esteban in bed under a blanket with her, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s report. The mother told the father, who questioned the girl, the report states.

The girl said that 23-year-old Mendoza-Esteban had touched her, according to the report. The father told deputies he confronted Mendoza-Esteban, who allegedly admitted to touching the girl.

Mendoza-Esteban was arrested Sunday. He declined to answer investigators’ questions without an attorney, deputies said. He is being held in the Martin County jail without bail.

FORT PIERCE — A city police officer was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison for molesting a 15-year-old girl in a Hutchinson Island beach parking lot.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl asked Circuit Judge Larry Schack to sentence Dwight Toombs, 34, to 35 years in prison after Toombs was convicted Jan. 22 on four felony charges stemming from the Dec. 18, 2007 incident.

Friends and family asked Schack for leniency after describing Toombs as a family man and a Christian.

Defense attorney Jack Fleischman said he plans to file an appeal.

“We expected a high sentence, and we feel pretty confident about the appeal,” he said.

Before sentencing Toombs, who did not speak on his own behalf, Schack said: “This is really a very sad day on two levels. One because of what was done to that young lady and two, because it was done by someone we all rely on to protect our children.”

Toombs was sentenced after being convicted of lewd or lascivious battery or molestation, attempted lewd or lascivious battery, sexual battery on a 15-year-old by a government agent and lewd or lascivious conduct. Schack also declared him a sexual predator.

Toombs faced a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.

Authorities said Toombs came across the girl, who was naked from the waist down, and her 20-year old boyfriend in a parked car at the beach and that Toombs fondled the girl using a glove while she was handcuffed.

Bakkedahl said law enforcement agents must be held to a higher standard because of their status within the community and added officers committing crimes undermines the judicial system. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A 63-year-old Port St. Lucie man was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to 30 years in prison for sexual encounters he admitted having with an 11-year-old girl in 2007.

Stephen J. King was sentenced to 30 years for attempted lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12 by a perpetrator over 18 and 15 years behind bars for lewd or lascivious exhibition, but Circuit Judge Robert Belanger allowed the terms to run concurrently.
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FORT PIERCE — An 81-year-old man who had accepted a plea deal on child molestation charges claimed his innocence Tuesday just as he was to be sentenced, prompting Circuit Judge Cynthia Cox to order a psychiatric evaluation.

The sentencing hearing for Aureliano Garcia-Campo of Port St. Lucie had gone on nearly three hours when Cox gave him a chance to speak. Garcia-Campo said through an interpreter, “The only thing I have to say is that I am innocent.”

Authorities charged that Garcia-Campo, while a volunteer at a Head Start day-care center on Lennard Road in fall 2007, inappropriately touched several 4- and 5-year-old girls. One girl told police he not only touched her genitals and buttocks but also fondled her.

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SEBASTIAN — A former Sebastian River High School teacher won’t face molestation charges after a Circuit Court judge accepted a settlement deal late Wednesday.

The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in May charged Aaron Scott Fusselman, 26, of the 7900 block of 100th Avenue, Vero Lake Estates, with a lewd and lascivious act on a person between 12 and 16 years old. The charge followed the accusations of a 15-year-old female student, authorities said. (more…)

Lawrence Saintil

The 13-year-old girl told St. Lucie County Sheriff’s officials that she was sleeping in her bed at about 3 a.m. on Monday when she felt someone touching her. The girl said she awoke to find Lawrence O. Saintil in her room.

On Thursday, the girl told a friend at school about the incident. The boy then alerted a teacher and school officials contacted the sheriff’s office about the allegation.

Saintil was dating a relative of the girl’s when the incident occurred, according to a sheriff’s report. He denied touching the girl.

He is being held in the St. Lucie County jail on $20,000 bail.

The mother of a 20-month-old boy caught her boyfriend inappropriately touching her son while changing his diaper, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s officials said.

The woman told deputies on Saturday that she had secretly set up a camera to monitor the toddler’s changing table, according to a sheriff’s report.

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