The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated Monday that a Florida middle school teacher was detained on Friday and charged with attempting to attract someone he thought was a 14-year-old kid into participating in sex acts using the internet.
According to the Department of Justice, a police agent dressed as a 14-year-old girl replied to an online notice made by a user entitled “English Teacher,” who was later identified as Matthew Christopher Yates, a 27-year-old eighth-grade English teacher in St. Augustine, Florida.
According to the DOJ, the agent told Yates they were 14 and in eighth grade in online talks, and the two exchanged sexually suggestive and sexually explicit photographs. Yates also sent a photo of his penis in his email to the agent.
According to the DOJ, Yates requested the person he believed to be an underage girl to meet him in person and outlined the sex acts he planned to perform to the undercover agent, even asking to film the acts on camera.
Yates was apprehended at the spot where the undercover agent had arranged to meet him. He had many condoms in his possession, according to the FBI. He faces a minimum mandatory sentence of ten years in jail and the possibility of life in prison.
