As a Florida woman remains jailed on serious felony charges involving underage boys, her father is publicly defending her in striking terms, arguing that she is mentally impaired and wrongly portrayed as a criminal.
According to the New York Post, Alyssa Ann Zinger, 25, is accused by prosecutors of posing as a teenager online and engaging in illegal conduct with multiple middle-school-aged boys in the Tampa area.
While authorities describe her as a serial offender, her father, Josh Zinger, insists the legal system has it backward.
“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 told The Post.
Josh said his daughter was raised in what he described as a stable, religious household in suburban Tampa, but struggled for years with mental health challenges. He listed several conditions he says she was diagnosed with and claimed she once scored far below average on an IQ test.
“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,” he said.
“In all actuality, she is the victim.”
Zinger was first arrested in November 2023, when she was 22, after investigators alleged she created a false social media profile presenting herself as a young teen.
Prosecutors say she used the account to interact with a boy between the ages of 12 and 15 and that the interactions continued for months.
Her father rejected that characterization, claiming the boy initiated contact and was aware of his daughter’s real age and mental state.
“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,’ ” Josh 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,” he added.
Josh further alleged that the boy concealed Zinger’s presence in his family’s downtown Tampa apartment for months and later introduced her to other friends of similar age.
“The boy who harbored her in his house for five months — he’s the one who introduced her to his friends,” Josh said. “And they all were like, ‘Hey, this girl is 14,’ wink, wink, high-five, high-five, ‘Your turn, bud.’”
In April 2024, investigators identified four additional alleged victims, all reportedly students at Wilson Middle School in Tampa’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
Since then, Zinger has remained jailed without bail on multiple felony charges, including lewd or lascivious offenses, child pornography-related counts, and sexual cyber harassment.
Josh claimed his daughter had been mistreated while incarcerated and predicted she would ultimately be cleared.
“There will be no plea deal, there will be no sex offender registry, she’ll get time served and adios,” he said.
Court records, however, allege Zinger repeatedly communicated with minors, sent inappropriate material electronically, and referenced interactions with other teens. The case remains pending as prosecutors prepare to move forward.
