Routine checkup trips sex offender

A patrol officer finds a 15-year-old girl in a sex offender's bed.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published July 3, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Raymond Gomez was arrested on a charge of lewd or lascivious battery and violation of probation for the 2003 conviction.

TAMPA - The sex offender answered the door in the nude, hands trembling. A vein on his neck pulsed a little too quickly.

Tampa police Officer Felicia Pecora felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

It was a routine check on a Sunday night, but something seemed amiss.

"His face was utter shock, " she said.

When she searched his house, she found out why. In the man's bed was a girl. She said she was 18, but Pecora didn't buy it.

She checked and found the girl was only 15. The girl met 52-year-old Raymond Gomez in an online Christian chat room, she told police. She was 14 at the time.

The girl used her cell phone and paid 50 cents to search for someone to talk to about religion.

That's where Gomez found her, police say. He told her he was active in his church.

They started a relationship six or seven months ago. They would meet in Polk County, and he would bring her to his Tampa home at 4803 Hillsborough Ave., Lot 30.

Gomez, a technician at a manufacturing company, told her he was a sex offender, the girl told Pecora. Records show he was convicted in 2003 of a lewd or lascivious act on a child under 16.

In that June 12, 2002, incident, he was employed as a clown, entertaining and face painting children at the Emmanuel Achievement Center on Henderson Road. Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said four girls, ages 9, 11 and two age 7, complained Gomez painted their faces with one hand and rubbed their legs, thighs and tried to get under their clothing with the other.

On Sunday, Pecora arrested Gomez on a charge of lewd or lascivious battery and violation of probation for the 2003 conviction. He immediately asked for an attorney and declined to talk with police.

He was taken to a Hillsborough County jail, where he was held Monday without bail.

Police believe there may be another victim, and they are piecing together Gomez's history. They found a red plastic nose and makeup in his home.

Pecora returned the teen to her parents, who were distraught, she said. She gave the family a list of counselors.

As a patrol officer in the neighborhood, making routine checks on registered sex offenders is part of Pecora's job. She felt fortunate she decided to stop by that house at the right time.

"Good people respect us, " she said. "Bad people should fear us."

Times staff writers, Rebecca Catalanello, Casey Cora and news researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.  

Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 226-3373 or vansickle@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 2, 2007, 23:29:16]