Man Ubers across Florida for sex with minor, gets busted by cops

Michael Braun
Fort Myers News-Press

Editor's note: The story has been updated to remove the name of a man whose charges were dropped.  

A Florida man Ubered his way across the state, at a one-way fare of $248, to have sex with a minor, according to law enforcement here.

However, it wasn't a child waiting behind this home's doors. Instead, a multi-agency team swarmed 23-year-old Michael Hoyman and arrested the Port St. Lucie man, charging him with obscene communication for traveling to meet a child after using a computer to lure that child, as well as cruelty toward a child for transmitting harmful information.

Hoyman's arrest was one of 22 so far in a sex sting dubbed "Operation Cyber Guardian," which mirrors previous online operations in which undercover officers pose as teens or pre-teens and arrange to meet adults for sex. Two of the men arrested in this sting were registered sex offenders, and one was a registered sexual predator.

At 150 miles, Hoyman's Uber ride across the Sunshine State was the farthest trek in this operation; six men were from Cape Coral.

"The cyber world knows no boundaries. No place is safe," said Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott. "If you don't keep track of your children, someone else will."

In addition to Hoyman, law enforcement also arrested 22-year-old Kyle Narring, who police say biked 40-plus miles from North Port to Cape Coral – in the rain – for an illegal sexual rendezvous with a child, even stopping several times to ask for directions.

"He was so committed to having sex with an underaged child," Scott said. "It shows the level and the depth of their perversion.”

The 22 men were arrested June 13 to 19 when they arrived at a rented home in a residential neighborhood of Cape Coral on Florida's southwest coast. Cape Coral Police Sgt. Dana Coston said six additional arrests are pending.

One of the six men still being sought was arrested Tuesday. Brandon Lee Romagnolo, 20, is now in Lee County custody.

This wasn't the first time law enforcement in Lee County has set up child sex stings.

In 2014, Operation Safe Summer saw 24 men arrested after making plans to meet and have sex with what they thought were 14-year-old boys and girls. Initial contact was made via mainstream social media, a fact that investigators cited as a warning to parents.

"The best advice to give is that as a parent you need to monitor what your children are doing both on smart phones and media devices, iPads, computers," Lee Sheriff Lt. James Amrich said then. "There's different programs out there they can use to track their activity. Talk to your kids, monitor their activity."

Florida Senate passes tougher sexual predator bills

In 2006, a sex sting in Lee County garnered national attention. Dateline NBC filmed two episodes of its popular "To Catch a Predator" series in Fort Myers, just across the Caloosahatchee River from Cape Coral. That sting led to 24 arrests, and featured a Sunday school teacher who showed up naked, a man whose unsuspecting sister drove him to the home and a father who brought his 5-year-old son with him.

"I think this was one of the most startling investigations we've done," Dateline NBC host Chris Hansen said at the time. "I think obviously the chat rooms and social sites have become trolling grounds for sexual predators. It's the anonymity the Internet provides that makes it attractive and a viable place for potential predators to prowl."

A 2014 investigation by WTSP-TV in Tampa found that more than 1,200 men in Florida had been arrested in Internet sex stings targeting child predators and sex offenders.

SEARCH: Florida's sex offender registry

The most recent sex sting in Lee County involved the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Cape Coral Police Department, FBI, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the State Attorney's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Those arrested in Operation Cyber Guardian include:

  • Richard Brown, 33, Lehigh Acres
  • Richard Desrosiers, 23, North Fort Myers
  • Michael Drew, 44, Cape Coral
  • Douglas Feddersen, 64, Cape Coral
  • Dominique Felicetti, 28, Cape Coral
  • Jorge Gonzalez-Benavides, 26, Fort Myers
  • Fabian Grajales, 52, Lehigh Acres
  • Roger Gregory, 36, Lehigh Acres
  • Rodolfo Hernandez, 33, Cape Coral
  • Travis Holcomb, 26, Naples
  • Michael Hoyman, 23, Port St. Lucie
  • Franklin Klein, 72, Sarasota
  • Serguei Korneev, 46, Cape Coral
  • John McEnroe IV, 22, Cape Coral
  • Kyle Narring, 22 , North Port
  • Paul Newport, 48, North Fort Myers
  • Nilson Orozco, 19, Lehigh Acres
  • Samuel Ribel, 48, Fort Myers
  • Brandon Romagnolo, 20, Fort Myers
  • Bradley Vetter, 72, Fort Myers
  • Ian Wagoner, 25 Fort Myers

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