Web Surfing for Hookups with Sex Offenders While on Probation Sends Former Scientist George Proulx Back to Prison

George Proulx, the 72-year-old former Palm Coast resident and scientist who was released from prison in June 2024 after serving four years for unlawful sexual activity with minors, is returning to prison for four more years after violating his probation.

Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark had originally offered a plea that would sentence him to 10 years, with credit for the four years already served. His attorney, Michael Lambert, negotiated that down to eight years, with credit for the four served. Proulx’s maximum exposure was 45 years in prison.

He will no longer be on probation when he is released at age 76, but he will have to continue registering as a sex offender.

Proulx, a former resident of Brittany Lane in Palm Coast, was arrested in May 2020 and charged with the statutory rape and molestation of four adolescents, runaways he’d picked up in Volusia County and taken to his house, in some cases after drugging them. He bought alcohol and cigarettes for them, and for one of them, cocaine, and continued to abuse the victims after discovering they were reported missing.

He pleaded guilty in April 2021 and was sentenced to four years, with a year’s credit for time he’d already served at the Flagler County jail. He then started filing several motions to reduce or vacate his sentence, though the sentence was relatively mild: his original exposure was 65 years, and his minimum, according to the sentencing guidelines, was 22.5 years. One of the mitigating factors was his bipolar disorder.

After his release from prison Proulx was to serve 11 years on sex-offender probation. Probation officers’ visits are a routine part of the process. Proulx was living in Cocoa when a probation officer visited last July 22, soon discovering that, contrary to probation terms that banned internet access, Proulx had been surfing the web and attempting to create a website. He had researched the names and locations of female sex offenders and calculated the distance to their homes, taking notes on their personal appearance. He’d sent letters to some of the women.

After his booking at a jail in Brevard, he was transferred to the Flagler jail last August 1, where he has been since. In court in November, Proulx told the judge he had applied for permission to surf the web, but had merely “jumped the gun.”

Today, Proulx appeared unaware that the deal to which he had pleaded limited his new time in prison to four years. He told the judge he thought it would be eight. “Absolutely you get that credit,” the judge told him, referring to the time he’s already served. “That’s a really good offer. And I have to say, I can’t make that offer. If we go to the hearing and you’re not successful, I have to sentence you to at least 12.” He also gets credit for time served since July 2025, further reducing his prison time to around three and a half years.

Once freed from prison, Proulx asked the court whether he would be allowed to return to Canada, his home country, though he would otherwise be allowed to live anywhere in the United States, within the bounds of where sex offenders are allowed to live.

“Your attorney did an excellent job for you today, you should thank them before you leave today,” the judge told Proulx. “This is a good, fair resolution.”