Lee County Sex Crimes Defense Attorney

Reviewed by Jason Mayberry, a Florida attorney who handles state and federal sex crime defense matters in Southwest Florida. Last updated July 31, 2026.

Jason Mayberry worked as a prosecutor before he began defending people accused of sex offenses in Lee County and across Florida. My Florida sex crimes defense practice covers how these charges are defined and graded statewide, and this page covers what changes when the case is here. I take those cases from my office in Tampa at (813) 444-7435, where I’ve handled serious criminal matters in the Middle District of Florida for decades.

A sex offense accusation runs differently from almost anything else in the criminal system. The investigation often continues for months before an arrest, most of the proof is digital, and a conviction follows a person past the sentence into registration and restrictions on where they can live and work.

Where Sex Crime Cases From Lee County Are Prosecuted

The Twentieth Judicial Circuit and the Lee County Justice Center

Florida charges arising in Lee County are prosecuted in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, which also covers Charlotte, Collier, Glades, and Hendry counties. Felony sex offense cases are heard at the Lee County Justice Center at 1700 Monroe Street in Fort Myers, and the prosecuting agency is the State Attorney’s Office at 2000 Main Street. A person arrested on a state charge is booked into the Lee County Jail and brought before a judge for a first appearance.

Charging practice and bond argument run locally, and none of it works the way Hillsborough County does.

Federal Sex Charges in the Fort Myers Division

Federal charges arising in Lee County are prosecuted in the Fort Myers Division of the Middle District of Florida, at the United States Courthouse and Federal Building, 2110 First Street. The division also covers Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, and Hendry counties. The charges that appear most often out of Southwest Florida are possession, receipt, or distribution of child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A, and online enticement of a minor under 18 U.S.C. § 2422.

What Charges Does Florida Bring in a Sex Crime Case?

Sexual battery under Fla. Stat. § 794.011 is defined in subsection (1) as oral, anal, or female genital penetration by, or union with, the sexual organ of another, or penetration by any other object, excluding acts done for a bona fide medical purpose. The grading turns on ages and force rather than on the act alone. Subsection (2) makes a sexual battery on a child under 12 by an offender 18 or older a capital felony, and a life felony where the offender is under 18. Subsection (3) makes it a life felony where the victim is 12 or older and the offender used a deadly weapon or force likely to cause serious personal injury. Cases without those aggravating facts fall to a first-degree or second-degree felony depending on the victim’s age.

Conduct against a person under 16 that does not involve penetration is charged under Fla. Stat. § 800.04, lewd or lascivious offenses committed upon or in the presence of persons less than 16 years of age. Molestation under subsection (5) is a life felony where the offender is 18 or older and the victim is under 12. Internet cases are charged under Fla. Stat. § 847.0135, where subsection (3) makes computer solicitation of a child a third-degree felony, rising to a second-degree felony where the accused person misrepresented his or her age, and subsection (4) makes traveling any distance to meet the minor a second-degree felony in its own right.

How Do Sex Crime Investigations Begin in Southwest Florida?

These cases rarely begin with an arrest. A federal child pornography investigation usually starts with a CyberTipline report routed from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to a task force, or with a file-sharing network monitored by agents, and moves through a subscriber subpoena to the internet provider before a search warrant issues for the residence and its devices. Months can pass between the tip and the knock on the door.

State cases in Lee County more often begin with a report to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, a child protective investigation, or a recorded forensic interview at a child advocacy center. Undercover operations that produce § 847.0135 charges are a separate track, built from chat logs written before anyone involved knows a detective is on the other side. Someone contacted by an investigator before any charge exists is at the stage where what they say does the most damage.

What Penalties Do Florida and Federal Sex Convictions Carry?

Florida sets the outer limits by felony degree in Fla. Stat. § 775.082, which caps a third-degree felony at 5 years, a second-degree felony at 15 years, and a first-degree felony at 30 years, with life available on a life felony. Those are ceilings rather than expected sentences.

The Criminal Punishment Code produces that starting number. Under Fla. Stat. § 921.0024, a scoresheet totals points for the primary offense, any additional offenses, victim injury, prior record, and applicable enhancements. The lowest permissible prison sentence in months is calculated by subtracting 28 points from the total and reducing the remainder by 25 percent, and a total of 44 points or fewer permits any nonstate prison sanction unless the court finds prison appropriate. Sex offenses rank high on the offense severity chart, so victim injury points and a prior record can move a case from a probationary posture to a mandatory prison floor with no change in the charge itself.

Registration outlasts the sentence. Under Fla. Stat. § 943.0435, a person who qualifies as a sexual offender must report in person to the sheriff’s office within 48 hours after establishing a permanent, temporary, or transient residence in Florida, and must reregister during the month of their birthday and during the sixth month following it. Failure to comply is a third-degree felony under subsection (9)(a), enforceable as a new prosecution years after the original case closed. My sex offender registration page covers the obligation in detail.

Federal exposure works on different arithmetic. Section 2252A(b)(1) sets 5 to 20 years for trafficking, receipt, or distribution, rising to 15 to 40 years with a qualifying prior conviction, while possession under (b)(2) carries up to 10 years, or up to 20 where the material involved a prepubescent minor or a minor under 12. Enticement under § 2422(b) carries not less than 10 years and up to life. The guideline calculation at USSG § 2G2.2 then adds specific offense characteristics for a prepubescent minor, for distribution, for a pattern of activity, for use of a computer, and for the number of images, which routinely drive the range well above the mandatory minimum.

On a federal charge out of Fort Myers, the sentencing calculation deserves attention from the first week. I handle federal sex crime charges in the Middle District of Florida regularly, and the case stays with me from the first review of the discovery through the sentencing hearing.

What Evidence Decides a Lee County Sex Crime Case?

Sex offense cases turn on a narrow set of proof, and each piece of it can be examined. In a federal § 2252A case the record runs from the CyberTipline referral or network capture, through the subscriber records tying an account to an address, to the forensic image of the seized device. What that image shows about knowing possession, about who else had access to the machine, about whether files were opened or merely cached, and about hash-value matching is contested territory, and so is the legality of the search that produced it. My federal child pornography defense page addresses that record in more depth.

A Florida case built on § 800.04 or § 794.011 usually rests on the recorded forensic interview, the medical examination if one occurred, the timing and content of the first disclosure, and any account the accused person gave to a detective. A § 847.0135 case is largely documentary, resting on chat logs, device extractions, and the order of the messages. Evidence not preserved early is often gone, because device data is overwritten, account records fall outside a provider’s retention window, and text threads disappear when a phone is replaced.

How I Defend Sex Crime Charges in Lee County

I start by finding out which system is looking at the case and how far along it is, because a pre-arrest federal investigation and a filed state charge at the Justice Center call for different work. Where a case is still an investigation, the useful work is often talking to the agent or the State Attorney’s Office before a charging decision hardens, and making sure my client is not the source of the government’s best evidence.

The Mayberry Law Firm is a solo practice, so the person who reads the forensic report is the person who argues the motion and stands next to you at the Justice Center or in the federal courthouse on First Street. I litigate the search first where there is a search to litigate, since a suppressed device can end a § 2252A prosecution outright. On the state side I look at how the accusation developed, at what the interview actually produced against what the report claims it produced, and at the scoresheet, where points assessed without support can move a sentence by years.

What to Do Now If You Are Under Investigation in Lee County

Do not speak to a detective from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, to a federal agent, or to a child protective investigator without a lawyer present, and understand that declining is not evidence of anything. Do not delete messages, photographs, browsing history, or accounts. Deletion is recoverable, and it creates an obstruction exposure that can be worse than the underlying charge.

Preserve what may help. Save the full chat thread rather than screenshots of part of it, keep the physical device rather than trading it in, and write down the dates and sequence of contacts with investigators while the sequence is fresh. If agents executed a search warrant, keep the warrant and the property receipt they left, since both identify what was taken. Do not contact the person who made the accusation, directly or through anyone else, and if a no-contact order exists, read its terms rather than relying on a summary.

Questions About Sex Crime Charges in Lee County

How Long Does the State Have to File Sex Crime Charges in Florida?

It depends on the age of the alleged victim. Under Fla. Stat. § 775.15(20), a prosecution under § 794.011 may be commenced at any time where the victim was younger than 18 at the time of the offense. Where the victim was 16 or older, § 775.15(14) allows a first or second degree felony prosecution at any time if the offense was reported within 72 hours, and otherwise gives the state 8 years.

Can Consent or a Mistake About Age Be a Defense Under Section 800.04?

No. Fla. Stat. § 800.04 states that neither the victim’s lack of chastity nor the victim’s consent is a defense. It separately provides that the accused person’s ignorance of the victim’s age, the victim’s misrepresentation of his or her age, and the accused person’s bona fide belief about the victim’s age cannot be raised as a defense. Other defenses remain available, but the statute closes those three.

Do the Federal Guidelines Decide the Sentence in a Child Pornography Case?

No. The guideline range calculated under USSG § 2G2.2 is advisory rather than binding, following United States v. Booker and Gall v. United States, so the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) carry real weight at the hearing. Any mandatory minimum in the statute of conviction is a separate matter and the court cannot go below it absent a recognized exception.

What Happens After a Federal Sex Offense Arrest in the Fort Myers Division?

A federal arrest begins with an initial appearance at the United States Courthouse and Federal Building on First Street in Fort Myers, followed in most sex offense cases by a detention hearing. That hearing often decides whether a person spends the pretrial period at home or in custody, and it usually arrives within days of the arrest.

Related Practice Areas

• Sexual battery is the § 794.011 charge, graded from a second-degree felony to a capital felony by the ages involved and the force alleged.
• Lewd and lascivious molestation is the § 800.04(5) charge, which reaches a life felony where the offender is 18 or older and the victim is under 12.
• Traveling to meet a minor is the second-degree felony under § 847.0135(4), charged alongside the underlying online solicitation.

If you have been arrested in Lee County or contacted by an investigator about a sex offense, call The Mayberry Law Firm at (813) 444-7435 or reach me through the firm’s contact page to arrange a free consultation. I am a former prosecutor who handles Florida sex offense cases in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit and federal cases in the Fort Myers Division, and you will work with me directly rather than being passed to someone else.