VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. from www.myfoxorlando.com – – Arrested in July for having sex with a 16-year-old boy, F. Douglas Wilhite is facing 15 more criminal charges after new details emerged from several additional teens who said they were exposed to nudity, sex, alcohol and pornography.
Volusia County Sheriff’s investigators took Wilhite into custody on Thursday night after a judge ordered him jailed on more than $1.5 million bond. The new charges came after investigators interviewed seven additional victims.
The Sheriff’s Office initially arrested Wilhite on July 10 on charges of plying a 16-year-old boy with beer, wine and vodka and then having sex with him about a dozen times between February and May. Police said the teen had been living with Wilhite and his wife at the time.
Five new victims acknowledged getting naked in front of Wilhite, at the defendants insistence. Many said playing billiards in the nude was a common occurrence at Wilhite’s house. Others said the 56-year-old Wilhite told them it was a house rule that they couldn’t use his workout room unless they took their clothes off. Two of the victims said they had sex in front of Wilhite after he asked them to do so.
According to witness statements, the common bond between the seven new teens was the 16-year-old boy that Wilhite is accused of sexually victimizing. The others said they were drawn to Wilhites home in order to visit the boy.
The investigation was initiated when the boy ran away from Wilhite’s home on May 18 and Wilhite’s wife, Sherry, called the Sheriff’s Office to report him missing. The boy eventually was located in Virginia in June. When he was interviewed, police said the boy detailed months of sexual abuse at the hands of Wilhite.
Following the arrest on July 10, Sheriff’s investigators continued to look into the defendants actions and were able to track down the other seven teenagers and get them to talk about what had been going on inside Wilhites home. That information resulted in the Sheriff’s Office obtaining arrest warrants on Thursday.
Wilhite is charged with six counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child, five counts of showing obscene material to a minor, three counts of lewd or lascivious conduct and one count of lewd or lascivious exhibition. Bond is set at $1,556,000.
Wilhite has been transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach.