"John Doe" - 13 yo /Accused" Joseph Woller - Casselberry FL

Police: Man With HIV Raped Boy, 13

Casselberry Man Held In Teen Sex Attack

March 14, 2011

CASSELBERRY, Fla. -- Police in Casselberry say Joseph Woller, 47, a registered sex offender, struck up some kind of friendship with a 13-year-old boy on Craigslist.com in January.

"The child met him through Craigslist and they corresponded back and forth on a chat line and through text messages on his cell phone," said Casselberry Police Cpl. Kristine Pamatian.

Woller arranged to meet the boy and picked him up around 4 a.m. Saturday near Casselberry city hall. Police said he drove the boy to Secret Lake Park, where he sexually assaulted him, then dropped him off near his home.

The boy told his mother what happened, and she called 911.

Parents at the park Sunday afternoon were stunned.

"It's scary. I used to think it's safe here -- bring the kids every weekend, never had any problems," said Robert Reis, who was enjoying a picnic with his family.

"I thought this was pretty safe. That's why I do come here. Try to keep an eye close on my kids. I'm just shocked," said Norm Conklin, playing with his two young daughters at the park.

Woller worked at the Goodwill store on U.S. 1792 in Fern Park, right next door to a child care center.

He was arrested in the parking lot of that strip mall Saturday afternoon, after telling police he thought the boy was 20 years old and that the sex was consensual.

Woller told investigators he is HIV positive. According to police, it's a felony for someone not to disclose that information to a sexual partner. So Woller is facing that felony charge, as well as several charges of sexual assault and battery.

Woller was convicted of sexual assault in Wisconsin in 1987 and now lives with a roommate on Shady Grove Circle in Orlando. No one answered the door at the home Sunday afternoon.

Ryan West lives a few houses down, and said Woller was quiet and walked his dog frequently. But, West said, neighborhood parents knew his background.

"My kids call him the bad man," West said. "Because I told them about him and to kind of keep away from him."

Police said the case should serve as a reminder to parents to keep an eye on their kids online.

"Computers should be in a room that they can normally see it. They should have passwords to the computers that their children are using. They should keep an eye on the websites they're looking at. They should look at their cell phones to see who they're texting," said Cpl. Pamatian.

Judith Pariseau, Vice-President for Marketing at Goodwill, said the company had no idea Woller was a registered sex offender. She said Goodwill does background checks for certain employees depending on their jobs, but wasn't sure Woller had a background check.


"We want to make sure the young boy and his family are taken care of and receive proper attention and care, and have no comment on Mr. Woller's guilt or non-guilt at this point,” Pariseau said.