A Metro Detroit bank executive with a law degree and a 2018 fringe party U.S. Senate candidate were among 22 men recently arrested by a new Genesee County Sheriff’s Office task force on suspicion of soliciting sex with children. The charges capped a five-week sting operation.
Sheriff Robert Pickell of Genesee County
(Photo: WEYI-TV video)
"We used to worry about children when they were outside the house," Sheriff Robert Pickell said in Flint as he announced the arrests Monday, according to Frank Witsil of the Detroit Free Press."Now we have to worry about them when they are inside the house, up in their bedroom and browsing on their computer."
Suspects are 25 to 71 years old. Task force deputies posed as 14-year-old boys and girls online and arranged to meet at hotels and motels, where the men were busted.
Those accused include:
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Carl Spradlin, 59, a Comerica Bank senior vice president in charge of risk management and compliance. He apparently lives in Holly, according to a public database.
He graduated from high school in Saginaw in 1977. The financial executive earned a Central Michugan University business administration degree in 1981 and a Cooley Law School degree in 1981, his LinkedIn page says. -
George Huffman III, 42, a truck driver who got 27,251 votes (0.6% of the total) when he ran for Senate last year on the U.S. Taxpayers Party line, according to Ballotpedia.
A campaign bio says he graduated from Sault Ste. Marie High School and is a former board chair at the Shiawassee Council on Aging. The fringe party hasn't nominated 2020 candidates yet, and it's unclear if Huffman planned to try again.
Two suspects sexually assaulted their own young children and took money from others having sex with them, the sheriff says,
