Published on December 23, 2022 at 3:05 pm
A former emergency dispatcher for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has been sentenced to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of taking photos and a video as he sexually abused two young children, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Scott Matthew Yotka, 48, also was sentenced Thursday to serve a lifetime term of supervised release and to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said. Arrested Sept. 17, 2021, he has been detained since then and had pleaded guilty May 13, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
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Someone using the name “Scottnjax44” used a social media app in September 2021 to have online conversations with an undercover FBI task force agent in Washington, D.C., court documents said. The undercover agent was posing as the parent of a child. Yotka was acting as the administrator of a public chat room on the app, prosecutors said.
In the chat room, “Scottnjax44” discussed his “ongoing sexual exploitation of children in graphic detail,” court documents state. He also said he had access to two young children whom he enjoyed molesting, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Yotka sent the undercover officer several photos and a video depicting himself as he abused the two children, and the FBI traced the online messaging activity to his home, prosecutors said. The investigation also uncovered that the same “Scottnjax44” user account was accessed at city facilities in Downtown Jacksonville, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
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Yotka told investigators “I know what I did” and “I’m not proud of what I did,” court documents said.
Seven photos and a video depicting him sexually abusing the two children were found after a forensic search of his cellphone, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
At the time of the arrest, the Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Yotka had resigned his position.
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