Kurt Batucan Sheldon, Child Exploitation, Florida 2020

Kurt Batucan Sheldon, a 29-year-old man from Interlachen, Florida, has been arrested and charged with production and possession of child exploitation material. Sheldon, a Putnam County Library employee, faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 15 years and up to 50 years in federal prison if convicted.

According to the complaint, parents of a minor child reported to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office that an adult was sending sexually explicit messages to their 15-year-old daughter on Snapchat and Whisper. The adult, who went by the screen name “K t” or “tacticfallout,” requested child exploitation material from the child and directed her on how to take images and pose.

A further investigation by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations identified Sheldon’s residence as the source of the IP address used by the Snapchat account “tacticfallout” and the Gmail account associated with this Snapchat account.

On September 4, 2020, HSI agents and deputies and detectives with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Sheldon’s residence. Sheldon admitted to asking girls he met on online applications to send him nude photographs, including a 15-year-old female.

Sheldon was detained pending a hearing scheduled for September 10, 2020. The case was investigated by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations, and it will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ashley Washington and Kelly Karase.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and all criminal defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/putnam-county-library-employee-arrested-and-charged-production-child-exploitation