On July 31, 2016, Deputy Jared Lee of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in central Florida responded to a call made from a church that involved a child victim.
When he arrived, Lee spoke with Taylor Cadle, who was 12 years old. She said that her adoptive father, Henry Cadle, had been sexually abusing her since she came to live with him and his family three years earlier. The most recent abuse, she said, had occurred the day before. She said that Cadle wore a condom when he raped her
Later that day, Detective Melissa Turnage interviewed Taylor about her claims of abuse. Turnage asked the girl whether she had said Cadle abused her because he had taken her phone away that morning after a disagreement.
“That accusation you’re making, since you are 12 years old, and this has been going on since you were nine, [means] he goes to jail,” Turnage said. “He doesn’t come back at all. So that means you, your brother, and your mom don’t have him at all. If you’re mad because you got your phone taken away, let’s say that now and be done with it. Because I have three stories that say you like to be with your dad, you’re daddy’s little girl, you love to go with him because you like to get out of the house.”
Turnage also told Taylor that if Henry Cadle was arrested, she would not be able to get braces or new shoes and she would have to go back into foster care.
Turnage also interviewed Henry Cadle that day. He denied sexually abusing Taylor but also declined to take a polygraph test.
Turnage asked him: “Has Taylor made any … kind of like dramatic stories or anything like that?
Cadle responded: “Which one?”
Turnage said, “Well, I mean like with um, over the top stuff like, you know, something just totally false that just doesn’t, and you figured out …”
Cadle said, “Taylor, Taylor, I think Taylor inherited it, as you would say, from the two biological [parents] because she can tell some whoppers.”
Turnage said, “Okay, all right, basically Taylor, I guess, has made up these allegations, okay? That you have been sexually abusing her.”
Cadle said: “Oh, whatever. No, no, absolutely not.”
On August 1, 2016, Katherine Blanton, a forensic interviewer from the Children’s Home Society in Lakeland, interviewed Taylor. During the interview, Taylor described various sex acts that she said Henry Cadle committed against her.,
Later that month, Turnage interviewed Taylor again. During the interview, according to reporting in Mother Jones, Turnage said that Taylor’s cellphone records showed that the girl had been texting continuously at the time she said the assault occurred. Taylor said that she had used her phone as a barrier to avoid interacting with Henry Cadle during the incident.
According to Turnage, deputies had searched Cadle’s car and found no evidence of bodily fluids. In addition, Taylor had been examined at a local hospital, and healthcare workers didn’t find evidence of trauma. Turnage also said that deputies had reviewed the surveillance video from the convenience store where Taylor said Henry Cadle had bought condoms but had not seen him in the footage. (According to Mother Jones, Turnage erred by requesting an incorrect time frame for the video.)
On May 2, 2017, deputies charged Taylor, now 13 years old, with providing false information to law enforcement, a first-degree misdemeanor.
According to Turnage’s affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint, there was “enough probable cause to establish [Taylor] lied during a felony investigation.”
Taylor and her adoptive mother signed a document that waived Taylor’s right to legal counsel, agreeing that Taylor would represent herself. On May 22, 2017, Taylor pled guilty in Polk County Circuit Court.
Taylor would later say that she did not fully understand the plea options offered to her, including the difference between a guilty plea and a “no contest” plea. She said her adoptive mother told her to “just plead guilty and get it over with.”
On June 27, 2017, a judge in Polk County Juvenile Court sentenced Taylor to probation. Her conditions included a 7:00 P.M. curfew, travel restrictions, and 15 hours of community service. Judge Mark H. Hofstad also ordered Taylor to write apology letters to Henry Cadle and the sheriff’s department.
In a letter to Henry Cadle, dated June 29, 2017, she wrote:
“Dear dad,
I’m sorry for what I did. I didn’t stop and think of [the] consequences of these actions. This will not happen again & and I’m sorry.”
On July 25, 2017, Taylor accompanied Henry Cadle on a trip to repair a lawn mower. She said that he stopped at a Dollar General to buy a drink but returned with a box of condoms. Taylor said that Henry Cadle drove her to a secluded location and sexually assaulted her. This time, Taylor had her cellphone out. She told Henry Cadle that she was playing a video game, but she took a short video of Cadle telling her what to do, and photographs of the box of condoms, of Henry Cadle’s exposed genitals, and of his hand while he digitally penetrated her. She also kept the empty box of condoms.
When they returned home, Taylor called 911.
Later that night, Taylor was taken to a hospital for a forensic sexual assault examination. Henry Cadle was taken into custody and interviewed. According to the report from the sheriff’s office, Cadle confirmed that it was him in the photos, but said, “she [Taylor] set me up.” On July 26, 2017, Henry was charged with custodial sexual battery on a minor.
On July 28, 2017, the Polk County District Attorney’s Office moved to allow Taylor to withdraw her guilty plea and vacate her conviction. The motion said that Taylor had pled guilty without counsel and that her claims of sexual abuse had been substantiated.
That same day, Henry Cadle was charged with an additional count of familial/custodial sexual battery and lewd molestation.
On July 31, 2017, a judge vacated Taylor’s guilty plea and her remaining probation sentence. The state dismissed the charge the next day.
In preparation for Henry Cadle’s trial, prosecutors submitted a notice of intent to include child hearsay evidence, which included Taylor’s initial claims from 2016 and her forensic interviews from 2016 and 2017. In a ruling that allowed the use of this evidence, Judge Keith Spoto wrote, “this child [Taylor] was a victim of a failure of the criminal justice system.”
On February 15, 2019, Henry pleaded no contest to the sexual battery of a child and was later sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Taylor Cadle said after her exoneration that she never received an apology from the authorities involved in her case. She told the Lakeland Ledger that she is hopeful that law enforcement will learn from the mistakes made in her case and lead to better support for other victims of child sexual abuse.
– Leonard Hua, Jonathan Lee, Danielle Moriarty, Sofia Okuma, and Nathalie Torres
Posting Date: 07-14-2025
Last Update Date: 07-14-2025
