FL: Man accuses Polk deputy of making false child-porn arrest after asking to call lawyer

Source: clickorlando.com  10/31/23

POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd faces a lawsuit after a man was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography in 2020, according to court records filed on Tuesday.

The lawsuit says that the sheriff’s office had started an investigation dubbed “Operation Guardians of Innocence V” back in October 2019, during which detectives searched for suspects in possession of child pornography.

After months of investigation, deputies said that Edgardo Cancela — who lived in Davenport with his wife and two children — had been arrested in the operation on charges of possessing and promoting child pornography.

However, a lawsuit filed by Cancela and his wife against Judd states that no evidence of child pornography was found during a search warrant on the couple’s property. Their children also told investigators that they had never been touched inappropriately

During the search, Deputy Sean Jones demanded Cancela provide a passcode to unlock his and his wife’s cell phones, but after Cancela asked to call his lawyer first to confirm it was OK to do so, Jones decided to arrest Cancela on the child pornography charges, the lawsuit says.

Following the arrest, Sheriff Judd publicly spoke about the operation, distributing Cancela’s name and address to local media. Cancela was put on suicide watch while in jail over the accusations, the lawsuit claims.

Court records show that the case was dismissed, and the charges against Cancela were ultimately dropped in October 2022.

The lawsuit accuses Jones of making a false arrest, malicious prosecution and defamation in the case. It also takes aims at Judd over his role in Cancela’s arrest and prosecution.

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Best of luck to this guy. Good thing he’s in federal court. He wouldn’t have a snowflake’s chance in hell in the Polk County one.

Perfect case of using your rights at the right time because you have them regardless of the situation. I pray this gent and his family are paid handsomely for their distress caused by both the Sheriff and the Deputy for their actions here while the LE office smarts from this for a long time afterward. That LE office has long sat on a bully pulpit far too long and wrongfully used it in bad ways to the detriment of those they serve.

You have your right to remain silent and right to ask for an attorney at any time you like when interacting with LE, even during a traffic stop. As other former LE has said in videos posted online, don’t ever talk with LE and to exercise your rights!

This article is very confusing to anyone from Iowa. I’m not from there, but I used to live in that great state. There’s a Polk County, Iowa and a Davenport, Iowa. Maybe it’s a sheer coincidence, but the use of less of our Anglo names and more local indigenous names would have avoided the problem from the start.

Last edited 11 months ago by Larry Tate

Disgusting abuse of power from the county where Grady that self-righteous POS sheriff resides like an Inquisition priest that sadistically likes to humiliate people the people he arrests before they are judged guilty. And this man was innocent of these charges but does Grady care? Hell no!

I really pray that this man sues every red cent out of that corrupt department and that Grady burns in hell when it’s his time to go.

Arresting someone after they refuse to provide a passcode during a search warrant is not something they can do. You have every right to refuse to speak (or write) in any way, including by refusing to provide them with a password or any kind of code.

When you mess up, you need to own up. Grady is no Christian if he puts his pride and his appearance of being above reproach ahead of the citizens he serves. God is watching.

This is not the first time I’ve heard of problems with Grady Judd. Back in 2010, he did stings, said (s)he was 18 or whatever online, then changed his age to something underage — and then had all those guys arrested even if they immediately ended all conversation. Judges eventually got wise to what was going on and started dropping all charges when it became clear that they tried to do the right thing and that ZERO CP was found on their computers.

Yeah, he may be “tough on crime”. But that doesn’t excuse falsely framing someone for CP. GJ has, IMHO, engaged in conduct worthy of impeachment, conviction, removal from office, and incarceration. The sooner the people of Polk County, FL understand what an overzealous THUG he is, the better.

Sheriff Gravy Jugg strikes me as a punk who was bullied in school and now that he has some authority he wants to portray some fake toughness.

I hope Sheriff Elmer Fudd (oops Grady Judd) and his Deputy Jones get their pocketbooks dried up like the Sahara Desert. Enough with the tactics of pulling these abuses of power for political gain and patting yourselves on the back.

Please let me know if I have crossed the invisible line into Conspiracy Theory territory…

We have made it far too easy for cops to frame people with CP possession. All they need to do is bring a thumb drive with some photos on it, and they have and open and shut case. They can use this against anyone, anytime they want.

I’ve actually met a man that may have been victim of this in my court ordered therapy group. They served a search warrant to look at his computers for evidence of Identity Theft, which they found. Then, after they took his computers away, guess what else they said they found? Somebody is lying…and the assumption is it’s him, not the cops. Which makes it even easier?

Even if it isn’t done, it could quite easily and effectively be done…which is dangerous.