JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (WFLA) — A former emergency dispatcher for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Scott Matthew Yotka filmed and distributed photos and video of himself sexually abusing two young children. USDOJ said Yotka was arrested in September 2021 and pleaded guilty in May. He was indicted in October 2021.
Court documents from the case say Yotka, using an online persona named “Scottnjax44”, had private conversations over social media with an undercover officer from an FBI task force. In those conversations, Yotka “discussed his ongoing sexual exploitation of children in graphic detail,” saying there were “two very young children whom he enjoyed molesting,” and had access to.
Records from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida quote Yotka as saying “that these children ‘squirm … and have that look like let’s just get this over with’ whenever he sexually abused them.” He sent the undercover officer photos and videos of himself abusing two children.
When asked, Yotka told the officer that the children were quiet because they were “young and don’t talk.”
The FBI traced the online messages to where Yotka lived in Jacksonville, determining the “Scottnjax44” account not only belonged to Yotka, but was “accessed from the City of Jacksonville Offices in the Ed Ball Building.” The Ed Ball Building is the current Jacksonville City Hall Annex.
Federal agents working in conjunction with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office determined that the account was accessed at that location while Yotka was employed as a Police Emergency Communications Officer by JSO.
Law enforcement received a federal search warrant for Yotka’s home in September 2021.
After interviewing Yotka, he “confirmed that he was the administrator of a chat room on the social media app for individuals interested in ‘incest fetishes, little kid things, [and] animal things,'” as well as admitting to “sending explicit pictures of young children to another app user” and “taking photos of these children as he molested them and used a particular foreign object to sexually abuse them.”
FBI forensic examiners found the photos and video sent by Yotka to the undercover officer on Yotka’s cellphone.
“The exploitation of children requires swift and aggressive law enforcement action, which is exactly what occurred in this case,” Sherri E. Onks, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Jacksonville, said. “Our children are among the most vulnerable members of our community, and the FBI works diligently alongside our partners to locate individuals who seek to harm them. All predators, especially those in positions of community service, should know that we will stop at nothing to find and stop you, and seek justice for innocent victims.”
