Lego and Disney World Employees Arrested in Child Porn Bust

By - June 7, 2018
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The Polk County FL sheriff’s office announced earlier this week that state investigators arrested 11 suspects in a child porn sting in central Florida. Some of them were employed by Disney World and Merlin Entertainments, which is owned by Merlin Entertainments.

Altogether, 660 felony charges were filed against the child pornography suspects, but more could be added as the investigation continues, according to the sheriff’s office.

According to Sheriff Grady Judd, this is just the beginning. Once the search warrants are issues and devices are seized that were used to download and distribute pornography, police will conduct a complete forensic analysis and it is likely that more charges will be added to felony possession and distribution of videos and images of children being sexually abused and sexually assaulted.

One of the suspects is 53 year old Roger Catey from Davenport. He told police he was a project manager at Disney World in the costumes department. He has been charged with 24 counts of possession of child porn and two counts of performance of sexual preference by a child.

According to Disney World, the suspect, who was working backstage in costume development, has been fired by the company. Another man, 69 year old, was not employed by Disney World but often goes to the park by himself. He was placed arrest on 16 counts of possession of three counts of promotion of sexual performance.

Further, police have charged Rickie Vargas-Garcia, 30 with at least 10 counts of possession of child porn. When he was arrested, he told police he worked as a Lego builder for Merlin Entertainments. It is owned by Legoland Florida, and has other Legoland locations. A Merlin representative has since said the man was not actually working at the Legoland Park but in an office offsite.

Vargas was actually working at a model building facility and he did not have a guest facing role or anything to do with children in the park.

The nine other suspects that were arrested in the sting, which was called the Guardians of Innocence III, also featured a high school student, a student in college and an 84 year old man.

Search warrants were issued for the homes where the men resided and a great deal of incriminating evidence was found. For example, detectives got a tip that child porn files were being advertised online by a computer user who lived there. Detectives talked to the man and he admitted that the equipment belonged to him. They looked at the computer equipment and found there was child pornography there with children as young as four years old. The equipment was seized for analysis at the crime lab.

Zaborowski told detectives that he does searches for the images and downloads them, which he has done for the last two years. He informed detectives he is an Orlando bartender and a driver for a Boy Scout troop. He was charged with 64 counts of possession of child pornography.

When the detectives did the search warrant for the 84 year old man, they had gotten a tip that child porn files were being advertised by a PC at that address. The man admitted the computer equipment belonged to him and that he had looked at child porn for many years. He would wait for his wife to leave the house and then he views it. During the initial look at the equipment, detectives found pornography there with victims as young as three years old. He was charged with 200 counts of possession of child pornography.

Other Child Pornography News

There also have been other child pornography busts this week. For example, the founder of a Huntsville, AL nonprofit is denying child pornography allegations that put him in Madison County AL jail.

Michael Sweeney is the 56 year old chairman and founder of Breaking Boundaries Foundation, which is a child-related nonprofit organization. He was booked in jail and then was released on $180,000 bail. He said in a phone interview that it is terrible that he has been charged with something he says he did not do. He insists that he and his organization are not those types of people.

However, Sweeney was charged by the sheriff’s office after a search warrant was done on his home in Huntsville. Lt. Donny Shaw reported that authorities took possession of several electronic devices. An investigation of those devices showed several images of child pornography. Sweeney noted that he was shocked when law enforcement and federal agents showed up at his home at 6 AM.

He and his wife founded Breaking Barriers after the 2011 tornado outbreak in the area. The outreach for the organization later focused on helping children.