Guilty plea: Ex-Jacksonville sheriff's dispatcher produced photos and video as he sexually abused 2 children

Dan Scanlan, Florida Times-Union
·2 min read
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A former Jacksonville Sheriff's Office emergency dispatcher pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of taking photos and a video as he sexually abused two young children, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

“I know what I did” and 'I’m not proud of what I did," Scott Matthew Yotka, 47, told agents during the investigation. He faces 15 to 60 years in federal prison following his plea and a potential life term of supervised release, prosecutors said.

Detained since his Sept. 17 arrest, no sentencing hearing has been scheduled yet.

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Court documents state that someone using the name “Scottnjax44” used a social media app in September to have online conversations with an undercover FBI task force agent in Washington, D.C. That undercover agent was posing as the parent of a child, and Yotka was acting as the administrator of a public chat room on the app, prosecutors said.

“Scottnjax44” discussed his "ongoing sexual exploitation of children in graphic detail," court documents state.

"He had access to two young children, and further that he enjoyed molesting them," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "Yotka sent the undercover officer several photos and a video depicting two prepubescent children being sexually abused."

The FBI traced the online messaging activity to his home and determined the same “Scottnjax44” user account also was accessed at city of Jacksonville facilities downtown, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

FBI agents coordinated with the Sheriff’s Office and confirmed that Yotka was a police emergency communications officer, then secured a federal search warrant on Sept. 16, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

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Interviewed by agents, Yotka confirmed that he administered a chat room on the social media app for people interested in “incest fetishes, little kid things, animal things," the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He discussed sending pornographic pictures of young children and taking photos of the children as he molested them.

A forensic search of Yotka's cellphone uncovered seven photos and a video depicting him sexually abusing these two children, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

At the time of the arrest, the Sheriff's Office said it helped with the investigation and that Yotka resigned his position.

dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ex-Jacksonville sheriff's dispatcher pleads guilty to child sex abuse