Youth basketball coach offers $5,000 to buy teen from his parents, Florida cops say
A youth basketball coach refused to let a teen leave a sleepover at his home, coerced him to say he wanted to stay and offered his parents $5,000 to buy him, Florida law enforcement said.
Carl Lombardo, a 58-year-old former coach with the Boys and Girls Club, is accused of a litany of crimes against children, including sex offenses, human trafficking and interference with child custody, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office announced Sept. 19.
His attorney information wasn’t available in court records Sept. 20.
The investigation began Aug. 31, when the 15-year-old’s parents reported Lombardo had refused to return their son to them after a sleepover at his Ocala house with the teen’s other siblings.
He sent the family a video of the teen supposedly writing a letter saying he wanted to stay with Lombardo, deputies said.
But upon reviewing Lombardo’s phone, deputies found multiple other videos of Lombardo coercing him, telling him, “Stop crying, just do it” as the teen is overcome with emotion, according to investigators.
Lombardo allowed the teen’s siblings to leave, but he told the kids their brother belonged to him now and that he would shoot their mom if she tried to get her son back, the kids recounted to deputies, according to the affidavit.
The child’s father confronted Lombardo over text about withholding his child and accused him of molesting the children, according to text messages included in the affidavit.
“Lombardo stated he was not concerned because he works with the schools and his reputation is spotless,” deputies said.
The parents called the cops, and the teen was returned home, sparking an investigation that revealed Lombardo had a “pattern” of getting the five siblings to stay at his home for multiple days at a time, during which he had inappropriate contact with the kids and molested them, deputies said.
As deputies interviewed the children and Lombardo, they learned he had bought them gifts, had photos of himself “cuddling” with the kids and had also taken pornographic photos of the children, investigators said.
Lombardo told investigators that on different occasions he offered to buy the children from their parents, offering $5,000, according to the affidavit.
Deputies said Lombardo used his “position of authority and trust” as a coach to “gain access and control over the child victims and engaged in a pattern over a period of two years to slowly normalize the behaviors he was engaging in.”
He was charged with human trafficking of a child for commercial sexual activity, interference with child custody, lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim less than 12 years of age, lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim between 12 and 16 years of age, lewd and lascivious exhibition and two counts each of production of child pornography and production of child pornography, according to the sheriff’s office.
Detectives believe it’s possible Lombardo has harmed more children and are asking anyone with information to come forward by calling Detective Henrik Osthed at 352-351-4710.
Ocala is about an 80-mile drive northwest from Orlando.
If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline's online chatroom.
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