Matthew Yates has pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a minor to produce sexual abuse content
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Department of Justice has revealed that a former middle-school educator from St. Augustine has admitted guilt to trying to convince a minor to create sexually abusive material.
Matthew Christopher Yates, the educator in question, faces charges of “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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Court documents from the DOJ indicate that an undercover FBI agent in Jacksonville, who pretended to be a 14-year-old online, contacted Yates on February 11, 2022. Yates had registered on the social media platform under the handle “English teacher”.
Throughout their texting, the documents emphasize that the agent presented themselves as a 14-year-old eighth grader, to which Yates acknowledged by revealing he was a teacher.
Documents further disclose that during their interaction, the agent and Yates exchanged photos. Yates remarked to the “child”, “I bet you look hot in a bikini,” and questioned if they ever “had fantasies about a teacher.”
From February 22 to March 11, 2022, additional exchanges occurred between the undercover agent and Yates, with him sending several pictures, including an explicit photo of himself, as outlined in the court records.
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.
