GPD: Man Prostituted Girl
Her curfew is ten o'clock.
That's what a girl told Gainesville police on Thursday night.
However, she was with a 36-year-old man who came to the notice of Sergeant Dave Blizzard.
"I made contact with the driver, ask him for his driver's license vehicle registration," he said.
Blizzard says the driver was a little too nervous over an "expired tag."
"His hands immediately started shaking uncontrollably," he said.
36-year-old Shay Thomsen of Gainesville says he was taking his babysitter home, but the girl in the passenger seat told police a different story.
"He would drive her around from place to place, and she would charge x amount of money for selling her body for sex," said Detective Scott Meffen.
According to detectives, Thomsen had been prostituting the 13-year-old girl for weeks, taking 20 percent of her earnings.
Neighbors say Thomsen was a normal guy- his children's toys litter his front yard on the south west side of town.
Detective Meffen says Thomsen met the girl two miles away at a Mormon church.
"The father knew the guy from church, and he knew his daughter was over there, being Thomsen's babysitter for the past week, to week and a half," he said.
Some feel the girls parents should have done more to protect her.
"Sure it's great that she's trying to make money and babysit, but there's got to be some responsibility on the parents," said one of Thomsen's neighbors.
Detectives say the investigation is far from over- they are now looking for the men who paid for sex with a 13-year-old.
However, the dominos only started to fall when an officer trusted his gut.
"It's just my job, do traffic stops, answer calls, check out suspicious persons...if something just clicks inside of me, I go beyond that next step, try and dig a little deeper and see if there's more to it than a just a regular 'traffic stop,'" said Blizzard.
Detectives recovered Thomsen's cell phone, which they say contained a nude picture of the girl.
Thomsen is charged with procuring a minor under the age of 18 for prostitution and driving with a suspended license.
He's in the Alachua County Jail on a $102,000 bond.
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