Police: Elderly Man Solicited Teens for Sex Near School

A Bradenton man was arrested Tuesday after he unknowingly told an undercover detective posing as 15-year-old boy that he wanted to meet him for sex, according to the Bradenton Police Department.

Raymond Robarge, 71, 5100 block of 14th Street West, was charged with travelling to meet a minor to have sex and using a computer device to seduce or solicit a child after he allegedly described sexual acts he planned to perform on the juvenile via phone conversation and text.

The BPD began investigating Robarge on July 18, in reference to a complaint from two juveniles that an unknown elderly man had approached them near Ballard Elementary School in Bradenton and offered them money to have sex with him. He reportedly gave them his cell phone number even though they told him to leave them alone.

A BPD detective, Kevin Bunch, traced the number to Robarge and began posing as one of the males. Robarge told the detective “in graphic detail” the things he planned to do to the 15-year-old, the report states.

Robarge was arrested after he showed up to meet Bunch at a predetermined location within city limits. He was taken to the Manatee County Jail where he remains on a $27,500 bond.

“Detective Bunch is dedicated to performing this difficult assignment on a full-time basis as a member of the F.B.I.’s Child Exploitation Task Force, and continues to be motivated when he is able to remove a subject like this from the community,” Deputy Chief of Police Warren Merriman, stated in a press release.