Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla – Joshua Simaul Bryan, 38, was arrested on June 26 for failing to comply with sexual offender registration requirements; 13 new charges related to child pornography have now been added after a search of his devices.

On April 20, Gainesville Police Department received a CyberTip about a child sexual abuse (CSAM) image that had been uploaded to Flingster.

A subpoena for the owner of the IP address associated with the upload led to Bryan’s residence at the Value Lodge (2000 SW 13th Street), and a search warrant was executed on June 26. “Numerous” electronic devices were seized.

Post Miranda, Bryan reportedly said he didn’t have an email account but later said he was using a family member’s email account, and that account was reportedly used to create the Flingster account. Bryan reportedly said the Flingster account didn’t belong to him but confirmed that the profile picture on the account belonged to a female family member, although the profile was set to “male” and the login and registration IP addresses were associated with the Value Lodge. Bryan was reportedly adamant that the Flingster account did not belong to his family member.

The family member came to the scene and reportedly said she let Bryan use her email account and password because he wasn’t allowed to have one. She said she had never heard of Flingster but confirmed that the profile picture was from her Google account.

Bryan was arrested for six violations related to providing sexual offender registration information on June 26.

Detectives reportedly found 148 CSAM images on one of his cell phones, including images of pre-pubescent and pubescent juvenile victims, both male and female. The Flingster website was also reportedly bookmarked on the cell phone.

Bryan has been charged with 12 counts of possession of child pornography and unlawful use of a two-way communications device. He has 10 felony convictions (non-violent) and is on probation in a 2021 child pornography case following a four-year prison sentence; he was released in July 2024. Judge Kristine Van Vorst added $1.3 million in bail to the $300,000 bail on the previous charges; he is also being held without bail until the probation violation charge is resolved.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.