{"id":193715,"date":"2026-03-16T17:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193715\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T17:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:09:06","slug":"man-sentenced-to-10-years-after-texting-undercover-detective-posing-as-teen-in-leon-county-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193715\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sentenced to 10 years after texting undercover detective posing as teen in Leon County sting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A man was found guilty Friday of texting someone he believed was a teenager during a Leon County sting operation last year, according to the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida State Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Gerald Mcbride was sentenced to 10 years in the Department of Corrections after a guilty verdict was returned for charges of soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, the state attorney\u2019s office said in a press release Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">His sentencing comes after being arrested during a sting operation called \u201cChat OP\u201d, which prosecutors said was conducted by the Leon County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-center article-text\">More on crime in our area<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Prosecutors said Mcbride believed he was texting a 16-year-old girl, but the person was actually an undercover detective.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">During the conversation, Mcbride \u201casked the undercover detective if she would allow him to take her virginity multiple times after being told she was 16 years old,\u201d according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/03\/16\/man-sentenced-10-years-after-texting-undercover-detective-posing-teen-leon-county-sting\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A man was found guilty Friday of texting someone he believed was a teenager&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3429,1721,90059,11578,90061,7737,5156,5699,17345,90060,1523,232,234,233,1953,39612],"class_list":["post-193715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-16-year-old","tag-capital-city","tag-chat-op","tag-detective","tag-gerald-mcbride","tag-girl","tag-lcso","tag-leon-county-sheriffs-office","tag-operation","tag-posing","tag-sting","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-teen","tag-undercover"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}