Twenty-seven men were charged with soliciting children on the internet. | Jan H. Andersen, Adobe Stock
Published on May 20, 2024 at 3:18 pm
Twenty-seven men have been arrested on charges of soliciting children on the internet to engage in sexual acts as part of Operation Valiant Knights, says Sheriff T.K. Waters.
Among the suspects jailed in the five-day undercover sting is a former pro baseball player and a Duval County school district employee.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Waters announced the arrests at a news conference Monday, saying that the suspects range in age from 19 to 69.
Duval County school maintenance worker Kevin Bryan Pearce is still jailed on $400,000 bail on five charges including coercing commercial sexual activity of an adult for human trafficking and traveling to meet a child after using a computer to solicit them, jail records show.
School officials said Pearce, hired in 2017, was a carpenter who did not report to any specific school.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Another suspect is former Boston Red Sox pitcher Austin Dean Maddox, still jailed on $300,000 bail after his arrest April 28 on four charges, jail records show.
Maddox was a pitcher from Jacksonville who was drafted out the University of Florida in 2012, according to mlb.com.
All of the men solicited sex from undercover officers posing as children via computer, Waters says.
“These adults solicited sexual activity, and committed to engaging in sex acts with purported minors at pre-arranged locations,” he said. “Once these adults arrived at these locations to meet these minors, they were immediately arrested. Twenty-four child predators who traveled to meet minors were arrested during this operation, and three additional predators were arrested after follow-up investigations.”
The undercover operation ran from April 24 to 28 and involved Jacksonville, St. Johns and Clay County’s sheriff’s offices, plus the FBI and others.
