Sheriff: Ex-Football Player Tried To Meet Teen For Sex

LARGO, FL — A 23-year-old former University of Tennessee football player faces a host of charges after Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputies say he tried to meet a teenage girl for a sexual encounter.

Mackenzie Crowder was brought into custody Tuesday night on one count of certain use of computer services prohibited and four counts of transmission of harmful material, according to the sheriff’s office.

The investigation into Crowder began on Jan. 21 when he is accused of engaging in an online conversation with a girl he thought was 14 years old, an email from the agency stated. The teen, however, was a deputy, working on “Operation Wayfarer,” a sting that also netted 15 other arrests.

See Also:

• 15 Charged In Pinellas Internet Sting

“Throughout the course of various online engagements, Crowder sent four photographs of his sexual organ to the ‘minor,’” the sheriff’s office announced following his Tuesday arrest. “Detectives also say that on
several occasions, Crowder enticed or solicited the minor to engage in sexual acts with him.”

Crowder’s arrest came Tuesday evening when he reportedly went to an undisclosed location in Pinellas County to meet with the “teen,” the agency reported. Detectives say he admitted to sending the photos and acknowledged he thought the girl was only 14.

Crowder, who is from Knoxville, was booked into the Pinellas County Jail, but later released in lieu of $50,000 bond. He was a senior offensive lineman on the University of Tennessee team in 2015, according to his biography page on the school’s website.

Booking photo courtesy of the Pinellas County Jail