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Mayo Doctor Accused Of Trying To Meet Underage Girl For Sex

POSTED: Sunday, April 6, 2008

Osceola County deputies on Saturday arrested a physician from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville after they say he drove to Saint Cloud expecting to have sex with a teenage girl.

Deputies set up a sting after they received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that the man using the screen name "search_of_dream" might be preying on underage girls in their area.

An investigator pretending to be a 15-year-old girl said he had two online conversations with Irfan Nawaz, 31, of Jacksonville.

Deputies said he sent pictures and during a four-hour-long conversation, Nawaz asked the girl to perform a lewd act. They agreed to meet at a 7-Eleven in Saint Cloud on Saturday afternoon.

Deputies said Nawaz drove more than 150 miles, only to be met by law enforcement officers who arrested him on several sex charges.

"He has told deputies this is the first time he had traveled to meet a minor he has spoken with online, but he has also told them he has had conversations with minors online prior," Twis Lizasuain of the Osceola County Sheriff's Office told WFTV in Orlando.

Nawaz was charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex, soliciting a minor for a lewd act and resisting arrest without violence. He was ordered held on $60,000 bond at the Osceola County Jail.

After the arrest, deputies learned Nawaz has an internal medicine practice affiliated with Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic released the following statement on Sunday:
"We take seriously any allegation of misconduct by our staff. We are just hearing about this matter now and will immediately conduct an internal review."

Neighbors in a Southside neighborhood where Nawaz lives told Channel 4 that he kept to himself and they did not even know he was a Mayo Clinic physician.
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