Acting United States Attorney Karin Hoppmann announced that 37-year old Scott Matthew Yotka, a Jacksonville resident, has been arrested and charged with distributing images and a video of the sexual abuse of young children over the internet. Yotka was previously employed by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Yotka faces a minimum penalty of five years and a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison plus the potential for a lifetime of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Yotka was arrested by FBI agents at his home Thursday and will remain in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Wednesday.
According to court documents, the day before the arrest Yotka, using the name “Scottnjax44” on a social media application, engaged in online private conversations with an undercover FBI task force officer in Washington, D.C. The FBI agent posed as a parent as Yotka posed as the chat room administrator. In a private message, Yotka engaged in an explicit conversation with the agent regarding the sexual exploitation of children. Yotka also allegedly sent the undercover officer photos and a video that depicted young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Yotka also stated that he was employed as an “emergency dispatcher” and worked “12 hour shifts.”
On Thursday, FBI agents coordinated with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and confirmed that Yotka was at that time employed by JSO as a dispatcher and that he routinely worked a 12-hour night shift, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office,
The case was investigated by the JSO, the Jacksonville FBI Office and Washington, D.C., and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.
The case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children.
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