Jalen Kitna plays in a 2022 game against Eastern Washington University.Photo:AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File
AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File
Jalen Kitna, the former University of Florida quarterback who was arrested in November on felony child pornography charges which were later dropped following a plea agreement, is speaking out publicly for the first time since his arrest.
As previously reported, Kitna, 20, was arrested when the Gainesville Police Department and the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Divisionexecuted a warrantafter he allegedly shared child pornography images through the social media platform, Discord.
Kitna’s five felony charges were later dropped in July as part of a plea agreement, in which the athlete pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of breach of the peace, according toESPN.
“November 30, 2022, at the age of 19, detectives arrived early in the morning and started asking about my pornography use. I was totally compliant, I shared all my passwords, and hid nothing from them,” Kitna wrote in a statement provided to PEOPLE through a sports management company.
“They told me an image I shared online was potentially of an underage female. I was shocked, because I had found it on an easily accessible, legal site, and I was never looking for illegal material. The photo included only a portion of the female body. I had no reason to believe the photo might be illegal.”
Jalen Kitna accepted a plea deal in July that dismissed his felony child pornography charges.Alachua County Jail via AP
Alachua County Jail via AP
Kitna added that he hopes to “move forward to pursue a college degree, a football career and my life as a now 20-year-old.” He went on to encourage others to “avoid the pitfalls of naive technology use.”
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In November, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children made the tip to police “that a Discord user distributed an image of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) through their platform,” according to arelease, as the Gainesville Police Department found two images were shared via Discord.
At the time, Detective Donna Montague revealed that Kitna told her he believed the images were “legal,” and “realized he should not have shared those two images, based on the reaction from the other Discord user that he shared them with.” Police added that Kitna said Discord informed him “that his account was deactivated due to violation of the terms of service.”
Kitna was then taken into custody on two counts of distribution of child exploitation material and three counts of possession of child pornography, after police took his electronic devices and a “preliminary analysis” found three more images related to child sexual abuse," as previously reported.
In early July, Kitna was sentenced to one year of probation following his plea agreement and was not required to register as a sex offender, per ESPN. He also reportedly said in court that he “learned some very valuable lessons.”
“The Gainesville Police Department wants parents to be aware that children are solicited and exploited through social networking applications,” officers said in the initial release. “These social networking applications, like Discord, Facebook, KiK, Snapchat, TikTok and Tagged, are also used to share images and videos which depict young children being sexually abused. Please be vigilant and aware of any social networking platforms your children may access.”
source: people.com
