Disney Declassified: Tales of Real Life Disney Scandals, Sex, Accidents and Deaths (17 page)

In January of 1999, the diocese suspended Hugh for allegedly sexually abusing pre-pubescent girls and teens dating all the way back to 1971. The diocese announced he was taking a leave of absence. He had privately gone through many treatment programs for his problem, but a recent incident involving an eighteen-year-old woman resulted in a suspension. No criminal or civil charges were ever filed but when asked about the allegations, he didn’t deny them. When another allegation came up, this time involving a ten-year-old girl, the Missouri diocese felt compelled to reach out to the Orlando diocese and inform them about Hugh and his employment at Walt Disney World. The Orlando diocese called Disney and Disney called the Missouri diocese to verify the allegations. By the next day, Hugh was gone. When interviewed by local media, he indicated he resigned for health reasons.

Forty-nine-year-old Cedric was another man of the cloth working at Walt Disney World. He worked the overnight shift at the Port Orleans Resort for seven years. He was also a revered pastor in Sanford, Florida at the Historic Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church. One evening Cedric was at work and went onto the resort computer to prepare his Easter Sunday church sermon. Cedric was working on John, Chapter 13, Verses 1-35 and Psalm 14 for his service. He was also viewing porn from YouTube that featured underage teenage girls. Unfortunately for Cedric, more than just the “man upstairs” was watching over him; so was Disney. The resort's computer system monitors every keystroke; the computers take screen shots every three seconds of each employee's computer.

This wasn’t his only unholy offense, Disney managers were notified that he had previously tried to visit websites that Disney had blocked . He also tried to engage young girls on YouTube by sending them private messages. He told the girls he enjoyed their videos, was a big fan, and encouraged them to send him a longer video privately.

Cedric was arrested in May of 2013 on the possession of child pornography charges, and soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct. The case piqued the FBI’s interest and, with another investigation in October of 2013, Cedric was arrested again on an additional twenty-one counts of child pornography. Needless to say, he lost his job with Disney and was relieved of his pastoral duties. Cedric’s case is still pending.

Another story from 2013 involving a Disney cast member and possession of child pornography is that of forty-six-year-old Thomas, a retired Air Force Master Sergeant working as a security guard at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. The Polk County Sheriff’s department worked in coordination with the Internet Crimes Against Children agency to apprehend Thomas. Deputies went to his home with a search warrant and found numerous images he collected over a span of several years. He was arrested and charged with seven counts of possessing and distributing child pornography. Thomas told deputies he enjoyed looking at the images of nine-to-eleven-year-olds because of their innocence.  

In 2007, twenty-year-old Matthew was working five days a week at Walt Disney World as a costumed character. He would hug children and pose for photographs with them as either Goofy or the Beast, from
Beauty and the Beast.
One day at work, he received a surprise visit; sheriff’s deputies were waiting to speak with him about a collection of photographs he may have at home. Deputies accompanied him home and found over 1,000 images of child pornography. The new father of a sixteen-month-old baby, by his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, showed no remorse and told deputies there was no difference between looking at pornography of adults and children, as they were just bodies. Matthew was arrested on fifty-one felony counts of child pornography. His roommate had tipped off police.

The next situation sounds like something that could be featured on NBC’s show
To Catch a Predator.
The case made headlines nationwide not only as it featured a Disney executive, but as the case utilized a new defense in court. Patrick, thirty-four years old at the time, was on top of the world. He was a rising star in the field of internet technology.

Patrick helped launch the computer software platform, Java, when he was an engineer with Sun Microsystems. He partied with movie stars and earned $183,000 a year with vested stock options of $15 million as the executive vice president of the Disney-owned Infoseek Company.

Infoseek was a crucial part of Disney’s
go.com
internet branding that still exists today. In September of 1999, things started to unravel for Patrick. Living in Seattle at the time with his college sweetheart in a $2.4 million dollar house, he hopped a flight aboard the Disney private jet to Southern California. He headed over to a Santa Monica pier to meet a friend. A friend that was a thirteen-year-old girl, whom he met on an internet chat room entitled, “dads & daughters sex.” In the chat room his screen name was HotSeattle her name was KrisLA.

KrisLA said she was thirteen years old, five feet tall, and had blonde hair. She was game for whatever Patrick suggested. He told her he wanted to have his way with her in his hotel, among other things. She was enamored with him, as he sent her links to articles about himself and a few pictures, some graphic. Patrick
really
impressed this thirteen-year-old girl ,and the two agreed to meet up at the pier.

HotSeattle went to the pier, as did KrisLA. Patrick was who he said he was, however KrisLA wasn’t a thirteen-year-old-girl but an FBI agent. Patrick was arrested and charged with traveling interstate with the intent to have sex with a minor. The laptop he had in his possession was also seized and contained images of child pornography. In a matter of days, he lost his job, his wife, and his house. The case went to trial in October of 1999 and Patrick pleaded not guilty. In what became his entire legal strategy, he insisted that the whole situation was a fantasy scenario that he concocted in his mind (he did work for Disney, right?). Patrick may have engaged in online sexual fantasies about young girls, but that was it, just fantasy, and the internet is filled with them. Apparently, Disney theme parks aren’t the only fantasylands, so is the internet.

Patrick claimed the entire internet could be “one large masquerade ball.” He never thought he would actually meet a minor in a sex chat room; despite the theme of them being adult men with sexual fetishes towards underage females, it was all a different sort of virtual reality. Well, Patrick’s defense basically worked. The jury was deadlocked on his case. Normally the FBI claims a 99% conviction rate on similar cases, and in an effort to make a very long legal story short, Patrick basically walked on all charges.

Because his first case was deadlocked, he was retried two months later and Patrick pleaded guilty under a plea deal. He received no jail time; instead he developed several computer programs for the FBI to streamline their online sting investigations; rather ironic.

He received nine months house arrest, was put on five years probation, and paid a $20,000 fine. The child pornography charges that stemmed from the photos on his laptop were also tossed out, as a portion of the federal law applicable to his case was found unconstitutional. In the end, he still maintained that he wasn’t out to solicit sex from a minor. He didn’t feel like a sexual predator; although, through his plea, he would now have to register as one.

What does a Walt Disney World costume designer, security guard and jungle cruise operator all have in common? Well, they were all arrested in Florida during sex stings that began with chats online to underage children. The Disney edition of online sex stings didn’t just end with Patrick; over the years cast members have been well represented to the Central Florida ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) task force.

Luckily, many of the sex stings or crimes that caught Disney workers operated entirely online and no children were abused; however, that wasn’t always the case. Sad to say, things did escalate from time to time and innocent children became victims at the hands of a few repulsive and revolting people.  

In January of 1996, a British family was on holiday at Walt Disney World. As the family entered Disney’s MGM Studios (now known as Hollywood Studios), they were approached by a puppeteer, Jeffrey, who worked for a company licensed to sell puppets at the Disney parks, and not directly employed by Disney. Jeffrey approached the seven-year-old girl with her family and pretended to wrap the legs of his puppet around the young girls waist. While he did this, he placed his hand up her dress. Jeffrey was arrested and in September of 1998, he was found guilty of lewd and lascivious behavior and sentenced to twenty-one months in prison.

In 1994, forty-seven-year-old David was arrested while he worked at Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness campground. Two guests witnessed him improperly touch two girls. Prior to working at Disney, he was a substitute teacher in Osceola, Florida. That was until he was fired for excessively touching, hugging, and kissing elementary school students. David was also a Girl Scout Troop leader. After his arrest at Disney, other victims stepped forward and he was eventually sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

In a story that shows the wheels of justice never stop turning, forty-five-year-old Bryan was working at Disneyland in 2013 as a ride mechanic when police arrived to arrest him for sexually assaulting young girls. Bryan’s sexual assaults on young girls began in several towns in southern New Jersey beginning in 1992 and continued until he was arrested in December 2013. All together he abused four victims, all under the age of thirteen at the time, and often on multiple occasions. Bryan was also in possession of child pornography. He was indicted on charges of aggravated sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, sexual assault of a victim who is more than four years younger and sexual assault through coercion.

In 2011, another Disney tradesman was arrested, this time, an electrician for Walt Disney World. Edgar, thirty-three years old, was arrested for indecent exposure and lewdness. He was caught in his car near a school and community center, watching pornography and exposing himself.

Somehow back in 1992, Richard was fired from Disney for indecent exposure, but was never charged for his behavior. From 1990-1992, Richard worked in Walt Disney World's florist division. Over the course of two years, Richard admitted to Disney that he routinely exposed his genitals to guests.

In 1990, Disney security suspected him of exposing himself to guests who were walking along Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. After more than one suspicious act, Disney security approached him and in a sworn statement he said he repeatedly exposed his genitals to guests over nearly three years; subsequently, his employment was terminated. Prior to his employment at Disney, Richard had been arrested four times on similar actions. He admitted in court that he exposed himself in public over 250 times and served 120 days in jail back in 1986 for his lewd acts.

In July of 1998, a Walt Disney World employee sexually assaulted a sixteen-year-old teenager visiting Walt Disney World with her grandparents from Colorado. At the time, seventeen-year-old Daneal was working as a cook at Chef Mickey at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. The victim and Daneal met near the pool, after a brief conversation, he offered to take the young lady on a tour of the hotel.

Unfortunately, she agreed and ended up in a second floor men’s room, where she was raped, as she feared for her life. That evening she reported the attack to the front desk and police worked the case. After initially denying the story ever happened, further questioning led Daneal to speak about the situation, and an arrest followed. When the case went to trial, in December of 1999, he maintained that the sex was consensual. The jury found him guilty of sexual battery and he was sentenced to nearly sixteen years in prison.

Another alleged case of rape happened at Walt Disney World’s Caribbean Beach Resort in February of 2011, this time with a different outcome. A woman called into Walt Disney World Reservations to inquire about reserving a room and theme park tickets for herself and her two children. The cast member taking the call was engaging and through their conversation learned the woman was unemployed and using her tax return to take her children on vacation.

After the phone conversation, the cast member sent the woman a text message and told her not to book a room, as he would help her out and book the room under his “friends and family” discount. He informed her he was a product of growing up with a single mother and was looking to help her out with “no strings.” The woman accepted his offer also under the guise of “no funny business.”

The woman and her children checked into the room and were met by the cast member. He then took her and her kids to the Magic Kingdom to celebrate her birthday. After some time at the park, she wanted to go back to the room, complaining she hurt her back on Space Mountain. They all went back to the room where the woman allegedly dropped many hints indicating she wanted her new buddy to leave. The woman claims he never left, but she fell asleep anyway. She slept until she felt the cast member trying to pull her pants down. She told him to stop and leave, which he didn’t do, and eventually she fell asleep again. She claimed at this point, she woke up again with the cast member sexually assaulting her. She pushed him off and demanded he leave, which he did. He told her he would see her tomorrow. After he left, the woman noticed her debit card was missing along with $40.

The next day the cast member returned to her hotel room and dropped off her debit card and said he found it in his car. He then escorted her and her children to EPCOT, signing her in for free and then leaving them at the park. Later in the day she called police accusing the man of both rape and theft. The cast member was subsequently arrested and charged with sexual battery involving a physically helpless person, theft of a credit card, and petit theft.

In November of 2011, the case went to trial. The defense stated that the sex was consensual and the woman obviously continued to speak with cast member after the alleged attack and didn’t call 911 after the assault. The jury agreed, and the cast member was acquitted on all charges, though he did lose his job with Disney.