DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —With his two-year-old son in the car, police said Patrick Williams tried to pick up a prostitute for oral sex on busy Ridgewood Avenue, but the working woman police say he was soliciting was actually working undercover.
"I never solicited in any way. She came over, offered everything. It's a big entrapment. Police sting," Williams told WESH 2.
Police Chief Mike Chitwood said the Ridgewood area is a hot spot for prostitutes, and taking his son along for the ride was a dangerous and stupid move.
"I said I got my kid. She said 'that's cool, I've got a room.' I said 'yeah, yeah whatever.' Then we turn around to get away from my car. As soon as I turned, drove way away. Blocks up the road, they lit me up," Williams said.
"He's a father, married man. Normally on Ridgewood Avenue are these disease-infested prostitutes," Chitwood said. "You run the risk to get robbed or whatever else you want to do and you think it's okay to bring your 4-year-old kid with you?"
Williams said he wasn't doing anything shady with the woman he believed was a prostitute on Ridgewood. In fact, he said, while on the way to buy his kids toys, he stopped to pray for the woman.
The police report paints a much different story.
In the arrest affidavit, police said the undercover officer told Williams, "she had a room and said that the child could watch cartoons."
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Williams allegedly told the officer he would turn around, keeping his back to the child, so the toddler wouldn't see the sexual act.
Williams said his wife was angry and that he "explained the situation. The reality is I thought it was some crazy crackhead. I felt bad for her, prayed for her and drove off."
To make matters worse, the child who police said was almost a witness to his own father involved with a prostitute, instead had to watch his father be led away in handcuffs.
"He cried. Three-year-old son crying," Williams said. "We were on the way to go buy him some toys. It's causing so many problems. Soon to be ex-wife is pissed about it. It's just been a terrible situation."
Williams said he plans on fighting the charges.
Meanwhile, Chitwood said in the past two weeks, police have arrested 50 people in the same area for prostitution.
Read more: wesh.com
How stupid could someone be