The dad of a Florida woman charged with posing as a teen to molest five middle-school-age boys has bizarrely claimed to The Post his daughter is “mentally defective” and the real victim of the sex crimes.
Before Alyssa Ann Zinger, 25, was arrested for allegedly having sex with underage boys, the accused pedophile grew up in a “good Christian home” in suburban Tampa — but dealt with a myriad of mental disorders, including ADHD, ADD, OCD, Tourette’s syndrome and anorexia, according to her father, Josh Zinger.
“She had a lot of problems growing up. Our daughter has been to 10 to 12 psychologists and psychiatrists throughout her life,” the 55-year-old dad said, adding that Zinger once scored a 72 on an intelligence quotient test — well below the assessment’s 100-point average.
Alyssa Zinger is the “real victim” of the underage sex crimes she’s accused of committing, her father told The Post.Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
“She’s defective — mentally defective. And do you know what that means under the law? If somebody is mentally defective and has sex with somebody, no matter their age, it’s illegal to have sex with a mentally defective person,” Josh fumed.
“In all actuality, she is the victim.”
Zinger, then 22, was first arrested in November 2023 for allegedly engaging in at least 30 sexual acts with a boy between the ages of 12 and 15 after creating a fake persona on social media as a homeschooled 14-year-old in order to lure in underage victims, prosecutors said.
But it was the boy — whom Josh distastefully dubbed “the little bastard” — who seduced Zinger and even took her virginity, her father alleged.
“That boy found her [social media] account, found her dancing like a 13-year-old on it and said, ‘Hey, girl, I’ll Uber you to my $5,000-a-month apartment — come on and hang out,’ ” the dad said.
“And then when she got there, she never said she wasn’t 14 to him, but he knew her real age, and he knew she was mentally unstable,” Josh claimed.
The suspect’s father, Josh, says his daughter grew up in a “good Christian home” in suburban Tampa but dealt with a myriad of mental disorders.Law&Crime
Over the next five months, the young boy “hid” Zinger in his family’s ritzy, downtown Tampa apartment, her dad claimed. The child introduced her to his other middle-school-age friends, four of whom would become additional alleged victims in the state’s case against her.
“The boy who harbored her in his house for five months — he’s the one who introduced her to his friends, and they all were like, ‘Hey, this girl is 14,’ wink, wink, high-five, high-five, ‘Your turn, bud,’ ” Josh said, adding that “this all will be proven in court.
“There will be no plea deal, there will be no sex offender registry, she’ll get time served and adios,” the father predicted.
Five months after Zinger’s first arrest, in April 2024, authorities identified the four more alleged victims, all of whom reportedly attended Wilson Middle School in Tampa’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
Since then, Zinger has remained in jail without bail on felony charges of lewd or lascivious battery, lewd or lascivious molestation, possession of child pornography, in-state transmission of child pornography by an electronic device and sexual cyber harassment.
According to her father, the clink hasn’t treated the accused predator well — with there being “s–t in her food all the time; fingernails, hair, objects, plastic, because whoever was making her food knew who she was, and they knew that that food was going to a pedophile,” he said.
Zinger has remained in jail without bail since she was arrested for a second time on underage sex crime charges in April 2024.WFLA
“When we go to court, we’re going to chem ‘em all up, flip this around,” Josh said.
Zinger’s trial is scheduled to begin May 26.
The first victim told police he and Zinger had sex multiple times and that she sent him explicit photos and videos, while another said she sent a video depicting sexual intercourse to several children through Snapchat, according to arrest documents.
She also told one of the victims that she’d had sex with other teens, the docs stated.
