When Windsor Board of Education member Christopher Watts was apprehended by federal agents in a Kissimee, FL, hotel room on March 29, he was expecting their arrival, according to the criminal complaint filed in an Orlando, FL, court.
Charged with having negotiated and traveled to Florida to engage in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl, Watts was able to identify the man posing as the young girl's father to be a law enforcement officer, the criminal complaint says.
Confronted by agents from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, Immigration Customs Enforcement and Police Deputies from Osceola County Sheriff's Office at his Howard Johnson Hotel room, Watts sat on the edge of the bed and read a note he prepared before agents arrived at his door, the court complaint says.
According to the court complaint, Watts read the following:
I am saddened by my behavior. I don't want to lose my wife and family. I try to be good but keep repeating old patterns. I ask God and the powers that be to have mercy on my soul and give me peace. I just want to do what's right and stop hurting myself and my family. I just want to buy a truck and go home. I may have broken the law but I have a track record of stopping and trying to do the right thing. I am finished with underage talk and photos for good. I can no longer put myself thru this pain. I am most nervous and embarrassing [sic] myself and my family. Whatever may be done, must be done but please don't make it hard on my wife. I love her as much as my ego allows me to love anyone.
Watts also read another letter, apparently to the mother of the 14-year-old girl he believed he had arranged to meet, the complaint says. According to the court complaint, that letter said the following:
I am sorry for this incident and for not reporting it to the police. What I did was wrong and i [sic] know that what I did was wrong. As I went along in the chat I at first thought it was fake, but started to realize that it wasn't, or at lest [sic] that it was probable once I saw the picture. I should have done something to stop your husband from doing such things. I accept the blame for what I did and wish that I could take back my actions and if any harm actually came to your daughter, I can never forgive myself.
I can only ask that something you can find it in your heart to forgive me for any wrong I have done.
Chris
Court documents say that Watts, seated before the officer who posed at the girl's father, detailed a history of downloading and saving "videos and images of children in sexual acts from websites on-line," and the videos and pictures with people on Yahoo! websites and in Yahoo! chat rooms.
Watts, who, if convicted, faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison, told officers that the youngest child he received an image of was a toddler, "but toddlers are not his thing, so he deleted it immediately," the criminal complaint says.
The complaint says Watts sees a psychologist, but revealed that he "has never has raised his 'compulsion' to the psychologist."
Due to the nature of his on-line activity, Watts spent time searching law enforcement websites for sting operations, the court complaint says.
It was through one of his searches that he was able to learn the identity of the arresting officer, and match it to a picture Watts obtained during the negotiation of his planned sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl.
According to Brevard County Sheriff's Office, Watts was transported to Orange County Jail on March 29, saw a judge the next morning and was held without bond.
