Registered sexual predator arrested at park swimming pool

A registered sexual predator was arrested at a regional park swimming pool after a parent said he squeezed her daughter’s butt and asked for a kiss.

The suspect, Timothy Rice, 41, faces charges of Loitering or Prowling by Certain Offenders in Close Proximity to Children, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Rice’s arrest follows several incidents of suspicious behavior. On March 21, a parent alerted the Ann Dever Regional Park Aquatics Coordinator that her daughter was touched by a man at the pool the day before, per the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office press release.

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The next day, Detectives returned to the pool, after they were alerted to Rice’s presence. The lifeguard said Rice had been at the pool for approximately two weeks, bringing toys like squirt guns and only playing with children there, the press release states. Also, he was told by a parent that her daughter had her butt squeezed and that Rice requested a kiss.

Previously, Rice was a lifeguard in St. Petersburg in 1998, when he was convicted of molesting several girls at an apartment complex pool.