Deputies: Man molested children during sleepovers at his Marion County house, offered to buy them

    MARION COUNTY, Florida (WESH) -- A Marion County man was arrested on Wednesday and is facing multiple charges after refusing to return a teen to his parents following a sleepover, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies said they received reports that 58-year-old Carl Philip Lombardo was refusing to return a 15-year-old teen to his parents after a sleepover at his home in Ocala.

Deputies were told that Lombardo had returned the teen's siblings earlier that day but refused to return the 15-year-old. The sheriff's office said the children would have sleepovers at Lombardo's house, sometimes staying for multiple days at a time.

The 15-year-old was eventually returned to his parents, but deputies said multiple of the children said they were touched inappropriately by Lombardo.

"The short story here is Mr. Lombardo is an absolute predator," said Lt. Paul Bloom with the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office says Lombardo was taking nude photos of some of the children and exposing himself to them.

"He even offered the mom at one point $5,000 to purchase the children," Bloom said.

The sheriff's office fears these may not be the only kids they should be worried about.

"We feel like he has more than just these victims that we've found in this case," Bloom said.

That's in part because the sheriff's office was told by the kids that they met Lombardo when he was their volunteer basketball coach.

His neighbor said he's been seeing kids come and go over the last several months.

"He just started having young children popping up at his house and coming over because, I guess, he had made some kind of friendship with him at the ballpark across the street," Richard Foster said.

It was the friendship he found odd.

"I had a strange gut feeling that something was going on," Foster said.

In Lombardo's phone, deputies found photos depicting child sexual abuse material of a young child, numerous images of him cuddling with the children, and pictures of their feet.

Deputies said he had a pattern of keeping the children at his home for multiple-day stays and doing inappropriate things to them.

He would also coerce the child victims through gifts, isolation and threats, according to deputies.

Deputies said Lombardo is facing:

Human trafficking of a child for commercial sexual activity Interference with child custody Lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim less than 12 years of age Lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim between 12 and 16 years of age Lewd and lascivious exhibition Two counts each of production of child pornography and possession of child pornography

According to the Marion County Sheriff's Office, Lombardo has been arrested and transported to the Marion County Jail. He remains without bond.