A California man known as a “repeat sex offender” tried setting up a Halloween “sex party” involving drug use to sexually abuse a child, federal prosecutors said.
Then came a standoff with a SWAT team, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Now, a South Florida jury has convicted Michael Gordon Douglas, 48, of Escondido, in San Diego County, of seven counts of distribution of child sexual abuse material and one count of attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, the office said in a May 16 news release.
During the five-day trial, prosecutors told the jury at the West Palm Beach federal courthouse that the charges against Douglas stem from when South Florida law enforcement became aware of his online activities in a “chat room focused on incest and other sexual taboo.”
In October 2023, Douglas began messaging who he “believed was the mother of an eight-year-old girl,” according to prosecutors.
Unaware that he was actually communicating with an undercover agent on the online platform Kik, Douglas expressed interest in sexually abusing the child he believed was real, court documents say.
He told the undercover agent that he’s repeatedly sexually abused his own daughter, according to charging documents written by a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations.
When the undercover agent, posing as the decoy mother, mentioned they lived in Florida, Douglas said he “has family in Tampa and Ocala, and that he ‘spent some time in Miami & Coral Gables,’” the HSI agent wrote.
“During months of chats, Douglas bragged about his sexual experiences with children and posted dozens of sexually explicit photos and videos,” prosecutors said.
Douglas also shared content of child sexual abuse in group chats, according to court filings.
In one of these group chats that he created and added the undercover agent to, Douglas advertised “a sex party that would include minors” and asked if anyone was interested in participating, court documents say.
Continue readingAccording to prosecutors, while Douglas communicated with the agent, believing they were the mother of the fake 8-year-old, Douglas “repeatedly instructed” how “to gradually sexualize (the) child so that she would be ready, willing, and able to have sex with him.”
“He offered to take the child’s virginity ‘in front of a meth-fueled orgy,’” referring to the Halloween sex party he was trying to coordinate, prosecutors said.
