The Wrong Voice

The Florida Department of Children and Families came under scrutiny in 2002, when a Miami investigator was discovered lying about visiting the foster parents of four-year-old Rilya Wilson—a girl who had actually been missing for a year. She has never been found. The department has also endured investigation that showed corruption in financial dealings.

Robert Butterworth, now the head of the department, said Zimmerman's alleged actions amount to "a betrayal of trust to this department, its employees and the people we serve." He also said he was disturbed by the lack of some information in Zimmerman's personnel file. The file does not contain an application for employment or a fingerprint card. The department says it learned of Zimmerman's arrests for writing bad checks—in 1998 and 2000 in Texas and in 2003 in Tampa—only after his recent arrest. He still has an outstanding warrant against him in Texas for the 2000 incident, but the other charges were dropped after he paid fines. Florida civil court records show that he has being chased by creditors for more than $14,000 in defaulted bank and car loans dating as far back as 1993. Ford Motor Credit has unsuccessfully attempted to garnish his wages and continues to have a lien against him for more than $10,500.

Andrea Moore, the executive director of Florida's Children First, an advocate group, said she did not fault the agency for its hiring of Zimmerman. "People like this are very charming and deceptive," she said. "I have met him. There was just nothing that would lead you to suspect him for this kind of behavior."

Moore said that the emerging reports of Zimmerman's history of writing bad checks and his credit problems would not lead to any suspicion that he could be a child pornographer. "It's a huge leap from financial irresponsibility to being a sexual predator," she said.

She added that the department has improved significantly under the watch of Butterworth and Gov. Charlie Crist. "They have made huge progress, and it's important that this not set their progress back."

Zimmerman was a television reporter for more than 10 years in Tampa, Texas and Georgia. His former landlord in Tampa, Roger Hall, said he saw teenagers around Zimmerman's apartment—especially one Zimmerman introduced as his son, an illegitimate child he told Hall he didn't know he had until he moved back to Florida. "He said he was trying to get to know his son," Hall said. (Tampa police say they have no knowledge of Zimmerman having a son.)

Hall and other acquaintances described Zimmerman as jocular and likable. Cody Marcum, who worked with Zimmerman at KENS in Texas in 1996, told the Tampa Tribune that he was shocked by the charges. "If you ever met him, you would be his best buddy in five minutes," Marcum said. "He was always a guy's guy. But a long friendship does not excuse any of this."

At KENS, Zimmerman delivered a report titled "Perverts in the Park," a segment that talked about men meeting for sex in a public restroom. The report drew complaints when it aired graphic images. At the time, Zimmerman said the images were supposed to have been blurred, and blamed a technical malfunction for failing to obscure the photographs.