TAVARES, Fla.—The adult son of a Tavares city councilman was arrested again Wednesday after a Tavares Police Department detective found video evidence of child sex crimes on his phone, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Cole Singer, who turned 22-years-old earlier this month, was picked up Wednesday afternoon on a warrant for four charges – lewd and lascivious battery, lewd and lascivious molestation, lewd and lascivious conduct and production of child pornography, stemming from an incident in 2021.
Cole Singer’s father is Troy Singer, a Tavares city councilman who has served on the council since he was appointed in 2016, and was subsequently reelected in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023. In addition to council member, he has also served as vice-mayor and mayor, Mark O’Keefe, Support Services director for the City of Tavares told Inside Lake last month.
In April, Cole Singer was arrested on two dozen counts related to child pornography after a TPD investigation uncovered Singer had allegedly transmitted multiple child porn images between December 2024 and early February. Acting on a tip submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC,) TPD began investigating the case in February and searched the home Singer shares with his parents the day of his first arrest. In that search, TPD seized Cole Singer’s phone, and it was turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for a forensic download, commonly known as a “data dump.”
While reviewing the data, a detective found a video that showed a young male performing a sex act on Cole Singer outside of the pair’s place of employment. The name and address of the business are redacted from the affidavit. The victim’s age is also redacted but Inside Lake confirmed he was under 16 when the act occurred, and Cole Singer was a little more than a month from turning 18.
The victim and his parents were interviewed at TPD, and the victim told TPD detectives he was in the video with Cole Singer. He said Cole Singer said, “Hey, can we do something in the back,” and led the victim to the “back,” an alleyway area behind the business’ patio, the affidavit states.
The victim told detectives details about the sex act and said, “I was a kid, I didn’t know.”
The victim told detectives Cole Singer later brought up the act when the victim was older, and because he was older, he understood what had occurred and told Cole Singer, “no,” and he was not interested.
The victim told police Cole Singer did the “same thing” and pressured him into the same sex act when Cole Singer was approximately 14 years old. He also said he and Cole Singer would wrestle and Singer would tell the victim to “choke” him. Due to heavy redaction, it’s unclear when this occurred. In the affidavit, the detective noted she located, “several instances where Cole would discuss being choked or wishing he could be choked.”
The victim was asked if he felt like he had no choice but to participate and he reportedly said, “(Cole) would keep telling me to do it, even if I would say no. He would just say please.”
A warrant was issued for Cole Singer’s arrest following the interview with the victim. He was arrested Wednesday and transported to the Lake County Jail, where he is being held on $400,000 bond.
Previous story: Adult son of Tavares city councilman arrested on 2 dozen child pornography charges, house they share searched in quest for more evidence – Inside Lake
