Prominent Florida attorney who led his law firm’s sexual abuse and sex trafficking team is arrested for possession for CP
It is with no pleasure that we report on this particular case. We all know too well the feeling of regret at the time of the arrest; how we would give anything to be able to go back and have never committed the crime, if indeed it was committed. From the moment of the arrest, most perpetrators of a sex crime determine that they will live the rest of their lives trying to make up for that terrible mistake they made.
But unfortunately, this is never good enough for many in our society. This attorney has probably entered a way of life that he never truly understood existed in the United States of America where we have always been taught that everyone deserves a chance at life.
“This attorney has been interviewed many times across the country about child sex abuse,” according to the New York Post. Additionally, he “advocated for the repeal of all statutes of limitations in child sexual battery cases.”
This attorney probably did nothing to try to rectify the horrible statutes/ordinances that are forced on the tens of thousands of law-abiding registrants living in Florida—Florida, which is considered by many to have the most heinous conditions in the nation for people on the registry.
Again, the registry did nothing to prevent this alleged crime.
If this attorney is eventually found guilty of the charges brought against him, could he be the legal mind that so many FAC members have been waiting for to join our efforts in abolishing the registry? As horrible as this story is for the victims of these pictures and videos, could there be a silver lining in it for registrants living in Florida?
Welcome to hell.
I like the way F A C approached this article, with pure honesty and truth. Kudos FAC!
With that being said i d like to say this Freaking Great. This is Justice. People like this lawyer are the ones who have constantly held me and all you others on the registry from returning to a normal law abiding life. Always pushing for more and more Harsh treatment for us. Its people in high places like this individual who throw hate at us and hide behind laws they push to make themselves to be and feel untouchable. Well it didn’t work Mister Dolce and i hope you get the book thrown at you for all the children you hurt And Pretended To Protect.
I have often thought that attitudes and laws would not change until some of those writing the draconian laws would have to live under them. There is no waste in God’s economy. Whether this man feels the full wrath of the law or not, perhaps he will have his eyes opened.
I am at a loss of words about this….
https://www.businessinsider.com/matt-gaetz-sex-offender-legislation-scorched-earth-2021-4
Well said!
Amen! Amen!
(and just a little teensy bit of Schadenfreude, no?)
Everything and everyone he knows will most likely turn there back on him immediately. Then he will probaly do a ton of time in Prison. I feel horrible for everyone involved.
You said, “he will probaly do a ton of time in Prison.” That depends on the federal crime charged. If he was charged under 18 USC 2252A(a)(5)(b) for instance, the max time in prison is 10 years. The feds don’t count each image as a separate offense like the State of Florida does. This is a federal case, according to the article.
Just sayin: Yes he was arrested by the Fed’s, but that’s not to say the state might not be the one to pursue the charge. Either way, karma.
In other news, our Arch nemesis Lauren Book was arrested.
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-democratic-chair-nikki-fried-sen-lauren-book-arrested-during-abortion-bill-protest/
The above looks like Lauren Book must’ve got herself arrested as a political stunt.
Well, well, well. He knew very well the penalties of committing the crime and yet it didn’t stop him. Perhaps in his mind it didn’t seem so bad being a Registrant.
Now he’ll know. Now he’ll know how much Florida really sucks for Registrants. Now he’ll get to know Ron Desantis and Ron Book in a different way. That’s right Michael welcome to Florida Hell.
Perhaps you could find some redemption by using your knowledge of the law to push those punishing laws back.
[moderated]
Say No to Restorative Justice for Sex Offenders, by Michael Dolce
https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/crime/317111-say-no-to-restorative-justice-for-sex-offenders/
“The people yelling the loudest are often just trying to hide from themselves and others.” (excerpted from Guy Hamilton-Smith on Twitter)
Thanks for sharing this, Jacob. I’m sending him a copy in jail along with some information and shared by FAC, Acsol and Narsol. Maybe he can put his law degree to work on our side of things now that he will be a member of the club.
Dolce will not want anything to do with registrants until he is at least sentenced. He will displace himself away from registrants for fear of looking guilty, like the rest of the guilty ones trying to hide something.
Essentially this is what he is facing, and possibly worse.
A first time offender convicted of transporting child pornography in interstate or foreign commerce under 18 U.S.C. § 2252, faces fines and a statutory minimum of 5 years to 20 years maximum in prison. Convicted offenders may face harsher penalties if the offender has prior convictions or if the child pornography offense occurred in aggravated situations defined as (i) the images are violent, sadistic, or masochistic in nature, (ii) the minor was sexually abused, or (iii) the offender has prior convictions for child sexual exploitation. In these circumstances, a convicted offender may face up to life imprisonment.
It is important to note that an offender can be prosecuted under state child pornography laws in addition to, or instead of, federal law.
I’m not even going to pretend to be anything but gleeful at the epic downfall and exposure of ultimate hypocrisy here.
Me either!
So sad and yet it fits Freuds “reaction formation “
If convicted he will be in the hell he fought to put others in.
Imagine being a lawyer who hunted and prosecuted people convicted of sex offenses being caught with CP. Now imagine the hell he will be in prison. I mean wow!
Absolutely. But let’s see what happens to him. He was fired from the law firm. He stated he was sexually abused. I am wondering if his lawyer will use that as a defense.
Did his (alleged) childhood sex abuse claims come before or after these charges were brought? Asking because it’s not clear in the article.
It’s an infuriating double standard. The idea that one who claims (not even proves) childhood sexual abuse must be coddled and given everything they want (i.e., Lauren Book) or given a pass for every mistake or wrongdoing (i.e. Jason Vukovich), yet it’s irrelevant when the claimant has been charged with sex crimes (as here).
Prosecutors always ask for (and receive) the maximum penalty in CP cases. This guy obviously isn’t well-connected enough to avoid the charges, so it’s likely that he isn’t well-connected enough to get less than the max for whatever charges he ends up being convicted for, claims of childhood sexual abuse notwithstanding.
The feds have safe places to put people like him. Just lookup Josh Dugger. There are many more because of the proliferation of federal prosecutions for this type of internet crime.
Amen! I have zero sympathy for him. Nothing is a powerful as getting a taste of your own bitter and hateful medicine. I’m sure he will use his experience of being abused as a child to try to minimize his crime; no doubt something he refused to take into account while he was busy going after others in this same scenario with a vengeance.
We don’t need Michael Dolce. We already have lawyers fighting for us who are better than Michael Dolce on registry issues. And he is about to lose his license.
Maybe years from now he’ll accept responsibility, complete court-ordered treatment, and become familiar with registry legal issues. At that time, maybe we can help each other. For now, Michael Dolce can [moderated].
This guy is about to find out the hard way that:
You can’t explain it away.
You can’t pray it away.
This is no forgive and forget.
There is no path back to normal.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/u-s-court-rules-documents-in-sanford-case-must-be-unsealed-1.6345965
Hopefully he doesn’t escape Justice like this might have done.
“The agents caught him actively downloading images onto his Samsung laptop, according to the news outlet.”
I have never heard of someone being caught in the act of downloading CP. That would probably mean that his internet was being monitored in real-time and/or they had placed a keylogger on his computer, and they were already outside his door.
Our police state has no trouble tracking down pornographers, but can’t stop school shootings and gang violence. Misplaced priorities?
My thoughts exactly. Talk about real v imagined threats to children. If child safety was a true concern to these hacks, I wonder why preventing children massacres isn’t being addressed
Can we all at least agree that child pornography is a real threat to children?
Nothing about enforcement of child pornography laws is causing any child gun deaths. That’s just a false dichotomy.
Yes, we can all agree that CP is truly harmful and heinous. However, can we agree that school children being blown to pieces seems to be okay with our lawmakers, yet they do zip about it and yet turn their wrath on non contact offenders. They should be hunting down the producers of CP instead of the customers. Looking at CP is an illness. Producing and distribution is done because it pays. Don’t think that there aren’t some very powerful and prominent people behind the production and distribution business.
[moderator’s note: The Federal sentencing range for distribution of child pornography is 5-20 years; for production, 15-30 years].
Yes, CP is a threat to children. But the physical, mental, or emotional damage is caused by those that produce it, not those that viewed it.
If viewing CP is as detrimental to those depicted as we have been led to believe, then the same argument must apply and subsequent charges must also be brought against every LE officer, prosecutor, judge, jury member, ICAC and NCMEC employee that ever had involvement with a CP case or “operation” (i.e., sting) – they’ve all viewed the same CP as the defendant in any given CP case.
To say viewing with intent to investigate or prosecute is different than intent to sexually gratify is like saying that an LE officer who hits a child with a car going 55 mph on his way home after being relieved of duty obviously injures or kills the child, but hitting one answering, say, a domestic violence or armed robbery call somehow leaves the child unscathed. The logic is completely absurd. This is not to diminish the effects of CP on its victims. Rather, it’s pointing out the true source of those effects.
No one person or group )like a legislature) can solve a problem if they can’t or won’t correctly identify it. It’s problematic when the same government that the public expects to fix this particular problem has an interest in the problem’s continued (perceived) prevalence.
Here is a point that hasn’t been made yet in these comments. CP as we know is among the fastest growing offenses in America today. It’s no wonder Mr. Dolce got caught up in it because (a) he was after all molested as a child and (b) his entire legal career has been built on sex offense cases – by now he knew exactly where to go looking for it on line when he began to succumb to its temptations.
Now here comes law enforcement, only too happy to swoop in an arrest him, the person downloading CP. But I’ll bet my life’s fortune that those same law enforcement agents are doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to go after the websites flooding the world with this stuff, to try to shut those websites down or arrest those running those sites.
Surely if it’s illegal for Mr. Dolce to download those images, it must be illegal for those website operators to post them?!
But no … stop making sense!
Federal sentencing guidelines for distributors— including website operators— are higher than guidelines for what Michael Dolce is charged with. The fact that people are still committing the crime of running such websites, does not mean that the laws against them are not enforced.
The people responsible for running these websites are rarely caught and as such, rarely prosecuted. Law enforcement is cutting the tail off the snake, but doing zero to go after the head. There are very powerful people making hundreds of millions of dollars off of abusing kids [moderator’s note: citation needed]. They won’t be stopped because of the power they have
The problem with that reasoning is that the feds are the ones running and keeping the sites up [moderator’s note: citation needed]. They’ve been doing it since they took over Backpage umpteen years ago. I’d bet the NCMEC has a degree of involvement with that as well.
Hey, did y’all know that Michael Dolce was Lauren Book’s attorney and is prominently featured on the Lauren’s kid’s website? Not even joking!
hXXps://laurenskids.org/advocacy-in-action-fighting-for-justice/
In 2002, young Lauren Book sat in a Broward County courtroom and revealed the horrors she endured at the hands of her live-in nanny for the past six years of her childhood. She took heart knowing her lawyer, Michael Dolce, not only believed her, but understood her plight all too well…
The very definition of irony.
Ha. Didn’t her pediatric doctor also get arrested for the same stuff. Registry not keeping her kids or her safe from potential danger is it?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/founder-of-protect-our-kids-first-arrested-for-allegedly-downloading-child-sex-abuse-material/ar-AA19CxNb
Some more details came out
I wonder,, What or why is the reason these child porn websites are even there? All the technology in the world at law enforcement’s finger tips free of charge can not figure it out? BS. Oh, i wonder though, Just a thought mind ya. what if Law enforcement does take them down as fast as they appear? Law enforcement/Government/prisons/civil commitment.
would not need billions of dollars any more.
Dolce was just sentenced to 4 yrs. prison, followed by 15 yrs. probation and sex offender registration for possessing CP. I just shared the complaint and judgment on RECAP, but you can also see it on PACER if you choose. Case#: 9:23-cr-80063-DMM All Defendants USA v. Dolce. RECAP link: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67133027/united-states-v-dolce/