DELRAY BEACH, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2026 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — Seven Bridges Delray Beach homeowner Ron Frankel is again free. Just weeks after a jury said it couldn’t reach a verdict in the federal case filed against him for allegedly transporting a child for sex in his home, a federal magistrate just ended the attempt by prosecutors to try the case again.
In his ruling, Federal Magistrate Judge Donald Middlebrooks agreed with defense attorneys who argued that the federal case was flawed from the start. Frankel, 68 at the time, was charged with transporting a teen girl across state lines for sex. But issues with the case came out in the first trial: Frankel found the girl on Tinder where the minimum age is 18. He had no way of knowing that the girl was 17 and lying about her age. Second, defense attorneys said that Frankel only sent her money. After all, she was allegedly looking for a sugar daddy. How she used that money, defense attorneys said, was up to her.
The girl, attorneys argued, used Frankel’s cash to fly from Des Moines to PBI, then transport to Seven Bridges to engage in a weekend of sex in the 68-year-old man’s hot tub, bedroom, and kitchen. It was her choice, defense attorneys said, not Frankel’s demand.
The original jury in the case asked a question about “cause” before a mistrial was declared. Quite simply, what “caused” the girl to come to Delray Beach. And that again is the core of the latest dismissal.
The magistrate judge ordered Frankel’s bond returned. He is now charged with nothing. It is unclear if prosecutors will seek an alternate charge to pursue against Ron Frankel.
