A man whose address was listed in the Truman Annex neighborhood of Key West was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child after communicating online with an individual he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles imposed the sentence on Clifford Frederic Lind, 41, who used the online alias “it is what it is.” Lind pleaded guilty in April to attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor and attempting to entice a minor.
According to court documents and statements made in court, between May 29 and June 4, 2024, Lind exchanged messages through social media and text messages with someone he believed was an underage girl. During those exchanges, which took place while Lind was in Key West, he sent sexually explicit images and videos of himself and requested images from the individual he believed to be a minor. Lind also discussed plans to meet the purported 13-year-old in person to engage in explicit sexual activity, including details about picking her up and where they would stay.
According to court documents, the man described the intimate acts he planned to do with the girl, and sent videos of him masturbating to the online persona he thought was a 13-year-old girl named Gracie. (The online persona was actually an FBI agent posing as a young teen.)
FBI Miami, Key West Resident Agency investigated the case with help from the Key West Police Department, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to find, arrest and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. More information is at projectsafechildhood.gov.
Anyone with information relating to child sexual exploitation or abuse is encouraged to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
