Justin Ethridge, a 39-year-old Gainesville resident, was charged Wednesday with possesing child sexual abuse material.
Ethridge was arrested along with 15 others during a three-day undercover operation called “Operation Firewall,” which took place July 30 through Aug. 1.
Undercover law enforcement used fake personas to catch people attempting to sexually exploit children. Ethridge was arrested for communicating with what he thought was a juvenile male, according to the arrest report.
Officers seized his phone during the arrest, according to the report, and began searching his phone for the messages he sent to the fictional juvenile.
During the search process, investigators found 77 files of child sexual abuse material and 85 files of child exploitive material, according to the report.
According to the arrest report, some of the content contained infants and toddlers. Ethridge last accessed the video content July 25.
One of the explicit images was set as his phone’s wallpaper the day of his arrest, according to the report.
Ethridge, who was already being held in the Alachua County Jail for his explicit communication charger, was charged with an additional 12 counts of possession of child pornography.
Contact Teia Williams at twilliams@alligator.org. Follow her on X @teia_williams.
Teia Williams is a journalism student and in her second semester at The Alligator. She is a lifestyle and general assignment for The Avenue. In her free time she is constantly reading, going to concerts, or talking about her favorite celebrities.
