Ohio Man Arrested, Charged with Attempting to Purchase Two Children for

Ohio Man Arrested, Charged with Attempting to Purchase Two Children for
Sexual Torture


July 25, 2007

~ Man asked undercover investigator if he
could drown her daughters for sexual gratification ~

TALLAHASSEE, FL ­ An Ohio man was arrested on feelony charges that he approached an undercover investigator online and offered to pay to act out his sexual perversions with children, Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced. Jeff Doland was arrested by authorities with the Attorney General’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit after he flew to Miami, believing he was going to meet a mother of two girls, ages nine and 12 years old, and would pay the woman $550 to forcibly submerge the children under water until they became unconsciousness. During multiple internet conversations, Doland told the woman, an undercover agent with the United States Secret Service, that “dunking” was his particular form of sexual gratification.

“The allegations made during the course of this investigation are so heinous they are almost outside the realm of comprehension. Without law enforcement intervention, real children could have been in grave danger,” said Attorney General McCollum.

The undercover investigation began in April when the Secret Service agent was working undercover in an internet chat room, posing as the mother of two young daughters. Doland, of Uniontown, Ohio, approached the “woman” online and told her that he would pay her to allow him to dunk the girls, describing dunking as forcibly submerging someone under water until he or she is generally unconsciousness, then raising the person out of the water. He claimed he “liked watching the bubbles” and went on to send the undercover agent explicit images of child torture as examples of what he proposed to do to the two young children.

The Secret Service agent alerted authorities with the Attorney General’s CyberCrime Unit, who assisted with the continued investigation until Doland announced his intention to meet the “mother” in Miami. Doland was arrested when his plane arrived in Miami after again describing to another undercover investigator exactly what he wanted to do to the children, including a detailed explanation of how he planned to bind the young girls to the bottom of the pool of water. The arrest was made with the assistance of the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Doland will initially be charged with selling or buying of minors, a first-degree felony, and promoting the sexual performance of a child, a second-degree felony. The first charge is described in Florida statute as offering to purchase a minor with the intent to promote acts requiring the rendering of assistance by the minor to any other person to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct. The additional charge is described as producing, directing, manufacturing or promoting the sadomasochistic abuse or harm of a child through torture and/or physical restraint for the purpose of sexual gratification. Doland faces up to 45 years in prison for the charges against him. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the 11th Judicial Circuit.

Under the new CyberCrimes Against Children Act of 2007, which was successfully championed by Attorney General McCollum and will become effective October 1st, child predators facing allegations similar to those against Doland can be criminally charged for soliciting the parent or guardian of a child who would then provide that child to the predator for the purpose of further sexual abuse. Sexual abuse of a child includes any sadomasochistic abuse of a child for the purposes of sexual gratification. The new law will provide for more effective prosecution and stronger penalties for this type of crime.