St. Johns County deputy arrested, accused of possessing child exploitation material

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday that one of its deputies was arrested during an investigation related to possession of images depicting the sexual abuse of children.

According to the Sheriff’s Office’s news release, Michael Coraluzzo, 55, has been employed with the Sheriff’s Office for seven years. His employment was terminated following his arrest.

His arrest warrant says the Sheriff’s Office received a tip in December from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children., and that was reported to Google.

Special agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are assisting with the investigation. Coraluzzo was charged with 12 counts of possession and ordered held on a $120,000 bond.

“This is an example of the law enforcement profession holding ourselves accountable, as this conduct will not be tolerated and is not a reflection of our core values,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a prepared statement.

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We talked to security consultant Christopher Hamer about the case.

“Google was able to take action to where they were able to narrow down the locality of the uploader based on their information,” he explained.

“Everything that you did from the moment it left your phone, to hitting your internet service provider, to hitting the search engine, to hitting the website is all tracked and logged,” Hamer added.

The Sheriff’s Office said the investigation remained active.