OKEECHOBEE — On Friday, Oct. 11, an Okeechobee man was accused of possessing an image of sexual activity involving an animal.

Detective Rojas of OCSO initiated an investigation regarding a report to the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children through their Cybertipline. 

The detective made contact with a woman who lives with the suspect. She reported that man had been using a phone that had belonged to her juvenile son  and the boy discovered a video of the man masturbating. The woman explained that at that point she decided to take the phone back and investigate further. According to the arrest affadavit, she discovered what she described as nude photographs of herself, nude adult females, images of bestiality, and a suspicious video of a child.

The man advised the detective he was aware of the woman's concerns. He accessed a locked file using a passcode on his Google Email address and allowed the detective to view the contents. The arrest affadavit indicates that within this file, one photograph depicting a woman engaged in the act of oral sex with a horse was located.

The suspect admitted to searching for pornography involving humans sexually engaged with animals and explained that he would conduct Google searches for “Bestiality” to find the content. The man said he had only downloaded the one photograph and scrolled through his files to show the detective this photo on his own. The detective browsed through his phone and was not able to locate any other content criminal in nature.

The man was placed under arrest and charged with sexual activities involving animals. Bond set at $5,000.

Under Florida Statute 828.126  "Animals: Cruelty, sales, animal enterprize protection,"  which prohibits any act committed between a person and an animal for the purpose of sexual gratification, abuse or financial gain," it is a third degree felony to "knowingly film, distribute or possess any pornographic image or video of a person and an animal engaged in any of the activities prohibited by this section."