{"id":338752,"date":"2026-07-13T19:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338752\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T19:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:11:16","slug":"um-student-arrested-for-traveling-to-meet-a-child-for-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338752\/","title":{"rendered":"UM student arrested for traveling to meet a child for sex"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Gooding-mug-shot.jpg\" data-caption=\"Rising sophomore Connor Gooding was arrested on the afternoon of June 29, 2026\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"183\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Gooding-mug-shot.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Gooding mug shot\"\/><\/a>Rising sophomore Connor Gooding was arrested on the afternoon of June 29, 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rising University of Miami sophomore Connor Gooding was arrested on June 29, 2026, for traveling with the intention to meet a minor for sexual intercourse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the official Columbia County <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1C5JtU2yMC\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">police report<\/a> released on Facebook, Gooding was communicating with someone he believed was a child over social media. In reality, the account was run by an undercover Columbia County, Fla., detective.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gooding sent messages describing explicit actions he would like to do and sent inappropriate pictures to the undercover account despite knowing the presumed child\u2019s age. He also asked the \u201cchild\u201d about their parent\u2019s schedule so that he could coordinate a time for them to meet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Columbia County detectives eventually arrested Gooding and found condoms in his possession.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During a digital investigation detectives discovered over 25 pictures of bestiality on his devices.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gooding was processed at the Columbia County Detention Facility and released on a $430,000 bond the next day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While at the detention facility he was charged with the following: traveling to meet a minor for sex, attempted sexual battery, using computer to lure, seduce and solicit a child, using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, distributing, transmitting, and showing obscene material to a minor on three accounts, \u201cfilm, possess image video animal sex activity\u201d on 25 accounts, possession of fictitious identification and tampering with evidence in a criminal proceeding.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to his LinkedIn profile, Gooding also worked at <a href=\"https:\/\/stjohns.kidstrong.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KidStrong<\/a>, a kid\u2019s development center, as a youth fitness coach. Kids from 0-11 are able to attend the program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gooding is also a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. The Hurricane has contacted the UM Epsilon Omega chapter and Lambda Chi Alpha headquarters, and has not received a statement yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Columbia County sheriff\u2019s office is still working on the case and expects more charges to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rising sophomore Connor Gooding was arrested on the afternoon of June 29, 2026 Rising University of Miami sophomore&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-338752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338752","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=338752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}