---
title: "Florida Navy lieutenant sentenced to 10 years for attempting to solicit child for sex"
description: "A 31-year-old Navy lieutenant was sentenced to a decade in federal prison for attempting to solicit a child for sex over the Internet, the Department of Justice announced"
date: "2019-03-28"
modified: "2019-03-28"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-lieutenant-child-sex-solicitation/"
categories:
  - "Around the World"
  - "Military Branches"
  - "Navy"
  - "News"
  - "United States"
tags:
  - "justice"
  - "scandals"
---

# Florida Navy lieutenant sentenced to 10 years for attempting to solicit child for sex

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/19322482-1.jpg>)

A 31-year-old Navy lieutenant was sentenced to a decade in federal prison for attempting to solicit a child for sex over the Internet, the Department of Justice [announced](<https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/mayport-navy-lieutenant-sentenced-10-years-using-internet-entice-and-meet-child-engage>) on Monday.

- Michael Douglas McNeil, assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Lassen, was arrested last year after contacting a detective posing as a family member of a 12-year-old handicapped child and requesting sex with the fictional minor.
- McNeil spent several days discussing plans for a sexual rendezvous, sending explicit photos of himself and "ask specific questions about the "child's" sexual experience and abilities," [according](<https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/mayport-navy-lieutenant-sentenced-10-years-using-internet-entice-and-meet-child-engage>) to the DoJ release on his sentencing.
- McNeil was [arrested](<https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/mayport-navy-lieutenant-sentenced-10-years-using-internet-entice-and-meet-child-engage>) when he went to met the fictional minor at a coffee shop, [according](<https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/mayport-navy-lieutenant-sentenced-10-years-using-internet-entice-and-meet-child-engage>) to the DoJ, blaming the solicitation on his "curiosity" about "a younger girl."
- The Naval Criminal Investigative Service assisted state and federal law enforcement with the investigation.

### SEE ALSO: A Florida Man Tried To Bring An RPG On A Commercial Flight

## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

### Author social links  
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