OCALA, Fla. — The Middle District of Florida unsealed an indictment charging a Florida man and volunteer little league baseball coach with attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity following a joint Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Orlando investigation.
Joseph Rocco Quaranta, 48, of Dunnellon, faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 10 years and up to life in federal prison if convicted.
According to court documents, on July 25, an undercover detective from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office posed online as a 13-year-old girl. Quaranta contacted the undercover detective and, after learning the minor’s age, engaged in a sexually explicit conversation. Quaranta arranged to meet the minor at a predetermined location in Marion County to engage in sexual activity. He arrived at the meeting location and was arrested shortly thereafter by law enforcement. After his arrest, Quaranta told deputies that he was volunteering as a local Little League baseball coach.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by HSI Orlando, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the Ocala Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Chiefland Police Department. It will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Janette Swartzberg.