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Matthew Yates has pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a minor to produce sexual abuse content
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Department of Justice has announced that a former middle-school teacher in St. Augustine has pleaded guilty to attempting a minor to produce sexual abuse content.
Matthew Christopher Yates, the teacher, is charged with “attempting to entice a 14-year-old child to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a video of her own sexual abuse.”
At the time of his arrest, Yates was employed as an eighth-grade teacher at Veritas Classical School in St. Augustine.
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According to court documents from the DOJ, an undercover FBI agent in Jacksonville posing online as a 14-year-old child made contact with Yates on Feb. 11, 2022. Yates had been registered on the social media app using the username “English teacher”.
During a text exchange, court documents state that the agent identified themselves as a 14-year-old girl in eighth grade, to which Yates told the “her” that he was a teacher.
Court documents show that during this interaction, the undercover agent and Yates would exchange photos. Yates also told the “child”, “I bet you look hot in a bikini,” and asked if they had “ever fantasize[d] about a teacher.”
Between Feb. 22 and March 11, 2022, court documents say that more messages between the undercover agent and Yates were shared, in which he had sent them several photos. One of the photos was an explicit image of himself.
On March 8, 2022, Yates asked the “girl” to meet in person, where he detailed specific sexual acts he intended to perform on “her,” before confirming plans to meet days later. Yates asked the “girl” if she wanted to video-record their sexual activities to “remember it even better.”
Yates drove to a prearranged location to meet with the “girl” on March 11, 2022, where he was met and arrested by FBI agents. Court documents say that Yates brought several items with him, such as a cellphone and condoms, before admitting that he had planned to meet a 14-year-old for sex.
The DOJ states that Yates faces up to 30 years in federal prison, with a minimum penalty of 15 years.
