The Police Report Team of the Boca Raton Tribune
Boca Raton, FL — June 1, 2026 — An Orlando man with a history of violent sex crimes has been sentenced to 15 years in state prison following an undercover internet solicitation investigation in Palm Beach County.
The defendant, identified in official department logs as P. J. S., 49, entered a guilty plea to charges of traveling to meet a minor to commit an unlawful sex act, unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct using computer services or devices.
The sentencing stems from an intensive investigation launched on August 26, when P. J. S. initiated contact on the messaging application Grindr with undercover Boynton Beach police detectives who were posing as a 14-year-old boy. According to police records, the correspondence rapidly transitioned to standard text messaging and telephone conversations, during which P. J. S. explicitly detailed his sexual intentions regarding the purported minor.
A background check conducted during the operation revealed that P. J. S. was listed as a registered sexual predator with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Over the preceding two decades, his criminal record included convictions for the rape of a 7-year-old, multiple rapes of a 5-year-old, and multiple counts of grand theft. He had previously served 21 years in a state penitentiary before being released from custody in 2023.
On August 30, P. J. S. secured a hotel room adjacent to what he believed was the child’s residence and traveled from Orlando to Boynton Beach to execute the encounter. Upon his arrival at approximately 4:00 p.m., he was intercepted and taken into custody by local authorities, subsequently providing a full confession to investigators.
He was initially booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on multiple statutory counts, including the transmission of material harmful to minors and solicitation. The successful operation was credited to a coordinated, multi-unit framework involving the Boynton Beach Police Department’s Human Exploitation Task Force, the Major Case Unit, the Violent Crimes Task Force, Road Patrol, and tactical analysts operating within the Real Time Crime Center.
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