A U.S. District Judge in Florida sentenced a convicted sex offender to 220 years in federal prison for producing, receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material and for breaking into the jumbotron on the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium after the team didn’t renew his contract after learning about it. . he was a registered sex offender.
U.S. District Judge Brian J. Davis sentenced Samuel Arthur Thompson, 53, for the crimes on Tuesday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Florida said in a news release. A federal jury convicted Thompson in November 2023 of the felonies, in addition to producing child sexual abuse material as a part of his requirement to register as a sex offender, violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon .
Thompson was previously convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Alabama in 1998 and was required to register as a sex offender.
Federal prosecutors said in their release that Thompson was hired by the Jaguars around 2013 to help design and install the stadium’s foremost screen after which was tasked with displaying it on game days.
“Thompson’s contract with the Jaguars required him to report the conviction, but he failed to do so. “In January 2018, the Jaguars decided not to renew Thompson’s contract after learning of his conviction and status as a registered sex offender,” the release said. “Prior to the expiration of Thompson’s contract in March 2018, Thompson installed remote access software on a backup server in the Jaguars’ server room. “Thompson then remotely accessed the computers controlling the Jumbotron during three NFL games during the 2018 season, which caused the video cards to malfunction multiple times.”
The Jaguars eventually found a backup server and, during their next game in December 2018, captured the IP address of an intruder trying to remotely control the jumbotron. According to the discharge, the FBI traced the intruder’s IP address to Thompson’s residence.
In July 2019, the FBI searched Thompson’s home, confiscating his computers and firearms, which he was prohibited from possessing as a convicted felon. According to the discharge, the FBI found files on Thompson’s devices that showed they were used to remotely access a backup server, in addition to hundreds of photos and a whole bunch of videos depicting child sexual abuse material.
“Samuel Thompson repeatedly molested and abused innocent children, inflicting immeasurable harm on his victims,” Coult Markovsky, acting special agent in charge of FBI Jacksonville, said in a press release. “He also exploited his employer by installing malware to manipulate its systems, which, if undetected, could have caused much greater damage.”
In a press release released in November after Thompson’s sentencing, the Jaguars thanked prosecutors for his or her work in the case.
