LAKE COUNTY, Fla — A 48-year-old Dade City man was arrested in Lake County after police said they found him with a 15-year-old boy in a car parked in an orange grove.
Michael W. Walton drove more than 30 miles and picked up the teen near his home at about 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, a Lake County arrest warrant said.
It was not the first time Walton drove to see the boy, it said.
The two had been messaging each other on social media applications on their phones, first on an app from gay.com and then on Kik, the warrant said.
Walton is accused of sending the boy explicit photos of himself and then receiving them from the teen.
The 15-year-old told investigators that the first time Walton drove to see him was on Monday, but when he saw the man’s black SUV parked on his street, the boy was “too scared to meet him” and backed out.
“The victim told me he believes that (Walton) showed up to have sexual contact with him, but he was not sure what kind, or when, or even if it would have happened,” the reporting officer wrote in the warrant.
When Walton picked the teen up on Tuesday, they drove to an orange grove off State Road 19 in Groveland and parked in the dark, the warrant said.
They were discovered there by a Groveland police officer at about 8:56 p.m.
Officers found a condom and lubrication in the vehicle, the warrant said.
Walton told officers that the boy told him he was 18 years old, the warrant said. The teen claimed he told Walton he was 17, it said.
Walton was arrested and charged with two counts of distributing obscene materials to a minor, a count of certain uses of computer services or devices prohibited, and traveling to meet a minor to engage in unlawful sexual conduct.
He was being held at the Lake County Jail in lieu of bonds totaling $19,000.
WFTV
