DOCUMENT: Florida

Cops: Father Drove Teens To Park For Sex

"They could be out there doing worse," man says

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"Do Their Thang"

SEPTEMBER 17--A Florida man was arrested this month after driving his 15-year-old son to a local park for a late-night sexual encounter with his girlfriend, also 15, according to court records.

At around 11:30 PM on September 6, a police officer spotted a Toyota parked after hours at McChesney Park in Port St. Lucie. The patrolman approached the vehicle and found Laurence Mitchell, 53, in the driver’s seat.

Asked what he was doing that Thursday evening, Mitchell explained that his son had asked him to pick up his girlfriend so that the minors could go to the park and “do their thang.” As to why the teens would be transported to a park after hours, Mitchell replied, “So they can do what kids do.” Asked by a patrolman for clarification of that statement, Mitchell reportedly said, “Well, they aren’t out there stealing, they are just having sex.”

Mitchell acknowledged that he did not know the girl he had picked up “nor gained consent to have her out from her parents.” But he added that, “They could be out there doing worse.”

The cop subsequently interviewed the teenagers, who “were returning from the soccer field.” When asked what they were doing in the park, Mitchell’s son replied, “We were just smokin’ and fuckin’.” When the cop asked the boy if his father knew what the pair was doing, the teen “laughed and advised he ‘didn’t know exactly.’”

The girl confirmed to the officer that she and the boy “were engaged in sexual activity.” Asked if Mitchell knew what the two were doing, she answered, “Well, I mean he drove us out here. But I don’t know.”

Seen above, Mitchell was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor for “knowingly and admittedly driving two 15-year-old juveniles to a park after hours to commit sexual acts.”

Mitchell was freed from custody after posting $750 bond. He is scheduled for a September 25 arraignment hearing on the misdemeanor count. (2 pages)