James Shannon Arnett (8810 Pine Tree Drive, Lakeland, Florida), 41, special needs teacher & assistant football coach at Lake Gibson High School, Polk County Public Schools, Lakeland, Florida, "arrested in connection to a child pornography case" Formerly coached for: Clay County High School, Clay County Public Schools, Manchester, Kentucky WKYT: Former Clay County coach arrested for child porn (May 9 2013) A former Clay County football coach has been arrested in connection to a child pornography case. The Polk County Sheriff's Office says 41-year-old James Shannon Arnett is in custody. Tags:
My Fox Tampa Bay: Lake Gibson teacher faces child porn charges (May 9 2013) A Polk County teacher and coach has been arrested on child porn charges ... Arnett, 41, is a special needs teacher at Lake Gibson High School and an assistant football coach, the sheriff's office said.
WTSP: Lake Gibson High School teacher James Shannon Arnett arrested in child porn case (May 9 2013) The Polk County Sheriff's Office says 41-year-old James Shannon Arnett is in custody. Arnett is reportedly an ESE teacher and is the defensive coordinator for the Lake Gibson High School football team in Lakeland. Updated article: Investigators say on Tuesday, a student turned in a thumb drive to a school resource deputy, saying he found it in the courtyard and it had "inappropriate" photos on it. The student said he had a 12-year-old sister and after looking at some of the pictures on the thumb drive he was "(expletive deleted)." Coincidentally, Arnett had earlier told the same resource deputy he had lost a thumb drive and was worried because he claimed it contained defensive football plays.Deputies say it did indeed have images of defensive plays on it, but it also had pictures of girls between 13 and 17 years of age, with the focal points being on the girls' breasts and buttocks. They were clothed and have been identified as Lake Gibson High students. The pictures appear to have been taken without their knowledge in a classroom setting. There were other photos on the drive that deputies say showed children posing in a provocative and risqué manner and two sexually explicit pictures involving young children. More incriminating photos were allegedly found on Arnett's laptop.
Tampa Tribune: Lake Gibson High coach faces child porn charges (May 9 2013) James Shannon Arnett, 41, who is also an in-school suspension teacher, had hundreds more images on the drive, many of clothed female students taken without permission, Sheriff Grady Judd said. Some of the photos were focused on the girls’ breasts, buttocks or genital areas, deputies said. “We found a lot of photographs of Lake Gibson High School students, girls specifically,” Judd said. “These photographs were provocative.” The thumb drive also had image files of nude adult females and child “erotica,” Judd said. There were also photos of two girls taken at a Lakeland park who were clothed but unknown to Arnett, Judd said. Some photos appear to have been taken in a classroom setting and in a track-and-field setting, deputies said. Some were wearing bathing suits “with their legs spread with the focal point of the photo being that of their genital area,” the sheriff’s office said. None of those met the legal definition of pornography, the sheriff’s office said. The two images he faces charges on show girls between the ages of 10 and 16 performing sex acts on men, deputies said.
WFLA: Lake Gibson High coach faces child porn charges (May 9 2013) Officials said Arnett lost a thumb drive last week. A student found it and took it home, before going to officials with information that the drive was filled with thousands of pictures. On the drive, officials discovered photos of nude females, images from the internet, and pictures of clothed female students from Lake Gibson High School, Sheriff Judd said. In some cases, the pictures appear to have been taken without the student's knowledge. Arnett, who is cooperating with officials, admitted to everything except the child pornography, Sheriff Judd said. He told officials he was first exposed to pornography at the age of 9, admitting to deputies he was addicted to porn, and "had a problem." In several cases, authorities said Arnett downloaded personal pictures of females from Facebook.
ABC Action News: Polk Co. coach arrested for child porn (May 9 2013) Polk County deputies have arrested a high school coach on charges of child pornography. He's identified as Assistant Football Coach-Defensive Coordinator James Shannon Arnett, 41 ... Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters Thursday afternoon that the case began to unfold when a student found a thumb drive at school and later looked at it. Judd said the student saw hundred of pictures including candid shots of female students at Lake Gibson High, child erotica and child pornographic images taken from the Internet. The student, Judd said, became very upset and took the thumb drive to a school resource officer. Investigators determined the drive belonged to Arnett. Arnett was arrested after school hours on Wednesday and, Judd said, he admitted to having "a problem." Judd quickly added, "We're going to be a big problem for him..."During the news conference, Judd said the thumb drive was 98% full and included photos of nude women, hundreds of high school-aged girls that were clothed, and two pictured considered to be child porn. The drive also included photos of girls from Lake Gibson High in provocative positions. Judd said it appeared the girls in the photos did not know they were being photographed. Judd is concerned Arnett may have been "grooming" female students and said investigators want to hear from students who have been in contact with Arnett.
Orlando Sentinel: Sex-addicted high school football coach arrested on child porn charges (May 9 2013) A self-described sex addicted Polk County teacher was arrested after, deputies say, they found child pornography on his flash drive along with provocative photos of female students taken without their knowledge ... He admitted to deputies that he used his Apple iPhone 4 to take photos of female students without their knowledge and downloaded photos from the girls' Facebook pages but denied any other inappropriate behavior. He also admitted that he had pictures of young children performing sex acts. He told deputies that he thought it was OK to view and possess images that come from a "public website" if he was not specifically looking for child pornography when he found them, his arrest report said. Sun Sentinel: Sex-addicted high school football coach arrested on child porn charges (May 9 2013)
WESH: Deputies: HS teacher had inappropriate pics of students (May 9 2013) According to deputies, a student found the drive in the courtyard at Lake Gibson High School on Tuesday and saw that it had images of teen girls. Deputies said a teacher and assistant football coach had recently reported a thumb drive that was missing, and deputies determined that the thumb drive belonged to him. Authorities said most of the pictures were of clothed girls, some in the classroom and some in an athletic setting, focused on their breasts and buttocks. Other images were child pornography, deputies said ... Similar photos were found on the work laptop, and James "Shannon" Arnett, 41, was arrested Wednesday, according to authorities.
WKYT: Former Clay County football coach arrested on child porn charges (May 9 2013) The Polk County, Florida sheriff's office arrested 41-year-old James "Shannon" Arnett, who is a teacher and a football coach at a high school there. Police claim a student found a thumb drive that Arnett had lost. Police say that thumb drive had naked pictures of female students and younger children on it. Police say they also found more pictures on Arnett's laptop.
Yahoo! Sports: Florida assistant prep football coach arrested on multiple child porn charges (May 9 2013) Lake Gibson (Lakeland, Fla.) High assistant football coach James Arnett recently told the school's resource deputy he lost a USB drive that contained confidential defensive plays. Only, when a student discovered the thumb drive, what he found can only be described as offensive. The drive included hundreds of "provocative" photographs of female students and at least two child pornography images, according to The Tampa Tribune ... Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told The Tribune the thumb drive contained a pair of images portraying girls aged 10-16 performing sex acts in addition to hundreds more photos taken in classrooms and on the track of female Gibson High students "focused on the girls' breasts, buttocks or genital areas." Police seized Arnett's computers at both work and home, where he leaves a wife and four children aged 5-16, the report said.
