Victim or suspect: Boy accused of using app to trade sex for money and drugs

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There was an empty Tampa courtroom Monday morning.

No judge, no defendant, no jury.

A trial was scheduled on the docket for a man accused of lewd and lascivious battery of a 12-year-old boy.  

But suddenly the Hillsborough State Attorneys Office dropped the charges against the defendant. 

This sudden decision comes on the heels of a recent trial involving the same 12-year-old boy.

The boy now 13, who prosecutor say is a victim, testified in front of a jury last week that he traded sex for money and drugs.

He was able to do that by creating a profile on the dating app called Jack'd.

You have to be 18-years-old to create a profile but the boy admitted on the stand that he lied about his age.

On the app, he met a 37-year-old man who went by the name "Keith Sweat"

The boy claims the two met at a Tampa park smoked pot and then the boy says he performed a sex act on the man.

But Keith Sweat denied all of it and a jury believed him.

They found Sweat "not guilty" of the charges.

But investigators determined the boy had contact with 996 gay men and prosecutors are going after some of those men.

But on this latest case, prosecutors had a change of heart.