Children & Families Agency Spokesman Pleads Guilty to Sex Crime

Al Zimmerman, the former TV reporter-turned spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families plead guilty to the production of child pornography yesterday. Just slightly less disgusting than the headlines would imply, the news stories point to him not using State databases to meet the teen boys he paid to film each other, apparently to sell the materials overseas.

Zimmerman faces 15 to 30 in prison unless he convinces the court that he can help make cases against other defendants.

The story blew up last winter when Zimmerman–who listed Governor Charlie Christ as a reference to get the job–was arrested.

Apparently it’s a routine matter for a Governor to give references for people they don’t know. However, the Raw Story reported that Zimmerman was busted for drunk driving, hanging paper (writing bad checks) and considered becoming a porntrepreneur with his brother, all after producing a highly controversial report that aired on a Texas TV station about restroom cruising titled “Perverts in the Park”. Zimmerman “forgot” pixelize the naughty bits when it aired.

The kerfuffle prompted Florida to review its background check practices revealing 8 percent of recent hires not been fingerprinted, nearly 10 percent of the personnel files were missing appropriate reference checks and 1.4 percent of the employees were missing a job application.

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