Cop lied about child porn to arrest Florida dad, barring him from seeing kids, suit says

A Florida father was one of 16 suspects arrested on child pornography charges in 2020, according to a sheriff’s office. However, a deputy is accused of lying to have him arrested — and a criminal case against him ensued for over two years before it was dismissed for a lack of evidence, according to a recently filed federal lawsuit.

Edgardo Acevedo Cancela spent one year in Polk County Jail after his arrest May 21, 2020, a complaint says.

Upon his release, he was forbidden from seeing his son, stepdaughter, and then-wife, Cassandra Escobar Caban — and could no longer live with them, a complaint filed Oct. 31 says. This was a condition of his release from jail, his attorney Daniel P. Faherty told McClatchy News on Nov. 1.

Polk County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Sean Jones started investigating both Cancela and Caban in October 2019 as part of the department’s “Operation Guardians of Innocence V” — an initiative to identify and arrest suspects who may possess, promote and distribute child porn, according to the complaint.

The Polk County couple, who were both employed as operating room nurses, never possessed child porn before or after officers executed a search warrant at their home while they were at work on May 21, 2020, the complaint says.

Their children, who were 10 and 13, were home when deputies served the warrant, searched the couple’s electronic devices and questioned them if their parents had ever inappropriately touched them — to which they answered no, according to the complaint.

Cancela, who “had no idea” what was happening when he learned deputies were at his house, headed home during the execution of the search warrant and was arrested, according to Faherty.

Caban fainted upon her husband’s arrest and EMS was called, according to the complaint.

Ultimately, no child porn was found on the couple’s devices, according to the complaint, which says their old phone number — which the couple abandoned when they moved from Puerto Rico to Florida in 2018 — was associated with suspected child porn activity, according to the complaint.

“(Deputy Jones) had done no investigation into what person had actually been using that phone and phone number when the alleged offenses occurred in October 2019,” the complaint says.

Jones is accused of lying under oath and in an affidavit, saying Cancela uploaded child pornography on Facebook and sent it to other users, according to the complaint.

Cancela and Caban are now suing county Sheriff Grady Judd and Jones, accusing them of false arrest and malicious prosecution, the complaint shows. Jones is further accused of defamation and libel.

McClatchy News contacted the sheriff’s department for comment on Nov. 1 and didn’t receive an immediate response.

After Cancela was charged with “promoting sexual performance of a child,” Assistant State Attorney Lauren Schultz dismissed the case against him in October 2022, a court filing attached as an exhibit to the complaint says.

“The state obtained additional evidence and determined that the charge cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, the state cannot proceed with the prosecution,” Schultz wrote, the exhibit shows.

Faherty said Cancela’s arrest, which resulted in him losing his job as a nurse, was “devastating” to him and his family.

Accusations made public

According to the lawsuit, after Jones reportedly lied in the affidavit in support of Cancela’s arrest, he “presented it to his boss, Sheriff Grady Judd, so he could announce the arrest publicly,” the complaint says.

In a June 2020 news release, the sheriff’s department detailed Cancela’s arrest in connection with child pornography photos and videos uploaded to Facebook. The release identified Cancela’s home address and his former place of employment.

The release said Cancela “denied downloading and viewing child pornography” and that detectives discovered electronic files “depicting child pornography with pre-pubescent aged victims” on his devices.

At a subsequent news conference, Judd called Cancela “a deviant” and said “he’s dangerous,” The Ledger newspaper reported in July 2020.

Jones’ “defamatory” statements and falsehoods about Cancela led to Judd “making the lies all the more public with his press conferences and public pronouncements,” the complaint says.

In jail, Cancela, who was upset over his wrongful arrest “had to be put on suicide watch” after “being taken away from his family,” the complaint says.

Cancela and Caban suffered “severe emotional distress and humiliation” which “continued as (Cancela’s) prosecution dragged out for over 28 months,” the complaint continued.

The pair demands a trial by jury and seek to recover damages, the filing shows.

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