Defuniak Springs Man Found Guilty of Attempted Enticement of a Minor

Tallahassee, Florida – Michael R. Foster, 49, of DeFuniak Springs, Florida, was found guilty by a federal jury of attempted enticement of a minor. The conviction was announced by John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida. 

U.S. Attorney Heekin said: “We are fortunate to have excellent law enforcement partners – like the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, HSI, and the FBI – who work tirelessly to keep our kids safe, both online and in our communities, by targeting, investigating, and arresting predators, like this defendant, who seek to sexually exploit and victimize children. Aggressively prosecuting these sexual predators is one of the top priorities of my office to ensure we keep them locked away behind bars and away from our kids.”

Court records and evidence at trial demonstrated that in November 2025, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, along with other law enforcement partners, conducted an undercover operation, directed at finding people who were soliciting minors online for sex. On November 8, 2025, the defendant began talking with an undercover law enforcement officer who the defendant believed was a fifteen-year-old child. The defendant told the purported child the sexual act he wanted the child to perform, was told a price for those sexual acts, and he arranged a meeting location. When the defendant traveled to meet the purported child at the agreed upon location, he was arrested by law enforcement. Electronic evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant confirmed the defendant had, in fact, talked to the person he believed was a child and traveled to meet them. 

This conviction was the result of an investigation by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Eric W. Welch. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website. For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida, visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndfl.