Branden Colon
Introduction
Branden Colon is a 22-year-old Davenport, Florida, man who was arrested in the Polk County Sheriff’s Office’s largest-ever undercover operation and whose roster entry, as WKMG published it, says he chatted online with someone presenting as the guardian of a 13-year-old boy. Deputies describe the conversation as sexually charged and say it ended with him driving to a meeting location, where he was taken into custody. Readers should note that the child in this account was fictional — an undercover detective’s persona — and no actual boy appears anywhere in the file. The account comes from the arrest roster WKMG obtained from the sheriff’s office.
Background Information
Colon’s name appears on the list WKMG published Friday, October 30, 2026, the product of “Polk Around and Find Out II,” a seven-day sweep that Sheriff Grady Judd sized up at 281 arrests and called the largest undercover operation in Polk County’s history. Detectives spent the week online in the guise of children or the adults responsible for them, and WKMG reported receiving the predator roster and its charges from the sheriff’s office. Its list sets the predator entries apart from the far larger group arrested on prostitution counts that same week, pairing each name and hometown with the office’s narrative of the exchange and the charges drawn from it.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not convicted. Colon was arrested in the operation and charged with four felonies. The narrative below belongs to the sheriff’s office, has not been proven in court, and Colon is presumed innocent.
The roster’s account opens online: per WKMG, Colon communicated with an undercover detective who was posing as the guardian of a 13-year-old boy rather than as a child directly. In the office’s telling, the two had a sexually charged conversation in the course of which he laid out the sex acts he wanted to perform on the child — the substance behind the “‘SEXUALLY CHARGED’” tag WKMG gave the entry.
From there the entry moves to the road: Colon drove to the undercover location and was placed under custody there. As with every entry of this kind, the counterpart was a detective and the boy existed only as a role in the operation, so the record shows messages and a trip — no real child and no completed offense.
WKMG lists four felony charges: traveling to meet a minor, use of computer to solicit guardian, use of two-way communication device to commit a felony, and attempted lewd/lascivious battery on a minor. Because the counterpart was played as a guardian, the solicitation count is framed against the adult persona — a distinction the office’s charge language preserves. The distinction matters for readers, too: a charge is an allegation the state must prove, and the roster itself records an arrest and a set of counts, not a conviction or a sentence — no source cited here reports either.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The Post’s numbers for the week — 117 people charged with soliciting prostitution, among them an Orange County deputy; another 122 for committing prostitution; 11 people identified as trafficking victims and offered services — ran alongside Judd’s showcase announcement of 281 arrests, and WKMG carried his line that “This is the single largest undercover operation we’ve ever done.” Neither cited report records any sheriff’s comment about Colon as an individual; his public footprint is the roster entry and its label.
Current Status
Colon was booked following the sweep on the four felony counts above. The cited coverage stops there: no arraignment appears, no plea is recorded, and no court dates are listed, and as of the October 30, 2026 announcements the charges were just that — charges. He is innocent until a court says otherwise, and what exists publicly is the sheriff’s office’s rendition of his week.
Impact on Their Career/Life
No occupation appears in either cited report for Colon, and his entry carries none of the Disney or theme-park labels WKMG used for 17 other arrestees, seven of whom were in the predator group — so the firings Judd confirmed at Disney, per the Post, have no documented connection to him. The consequence the record actually shows is exposure: a 22-year-old’s name, city, age, quoted label, and charge list entered public circulation through WKMG’s publication of the roster, the kind of identification that follows a person long after any news cycle. Neither report says more about his circumstances.