On the same day that Disney employees walked out in protest of Florida’s new anti-grooming bill, three employees of the children’s theme park were caught in a sex crime bust, and at least one was charged with a child sex crime.
The employees have been placed on unpaid leave, Disney told The Florida Capital Star, declining to comment further.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday 108 people were arrested in a sex crimes operation, mostly for prostitution-related crimes.
Jackson is accused of sending explicit photos to a person whom he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
“Did I mention that he just happens to be a lifeguard at the Polynesian Resort for Disney? You think there’s a few children around there?” Judd said. “That’s right, I didn’t stutter. He was a lifeguard at the Polynesian Resort. And was bragging about that.”
Fidele reportedly works at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café in Tomorrowland, and Leese works in the company’s IT department.
A large majority of Americans polled said they support Florida’s new anti-grooming bill, which bans kindergarten through third-grade teachers from discussing sex or sexuality with their students.
“It’s telling that the mainstream media pulled out all the stops to push a false narrative about this bill – but failed to convince most Americans to oppose it,” Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) Press Secretary Christina Pushaw told The Star Wednesday in response to the poll.
Opponents of the bill, like the ones who walked off the job in protest at Disney, call it a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which they think is discriminatory towards LGBT people.
The Disney protestors believe that the company’s CEO Bob Chapek did not do enough to combat the new law.
This isn’t the first time Disney employees have been caught up in child sex crimes.
Just last August, “several” Disney employees were arrested as part of a sting operation specifically targeting alleged pedophiles.
“These are nasty, nasty, nasty people, and when we go through this, understand that obviously, we can’t even use the words they used,” Judd said at the time. “We obviously can’t show you the pictures and the video clips that they sent to what they thought were 13-year-old little girls and little boys.”
According to Reiff Law Firm, at least 35 Disney employees have been charged with child sex crimes since 2006.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Disney World” by Jrobertiko. CC BY-SA 3.0.
