Indian River County-March 29, 2022: A Brevard County middle school teacher has been arrested for sending nude photos of himself over the internet to a person he thought was a 16 year old girl in Indian River County.
“He was actually chatting online with IRC Sheriff Detective Sgt. Eric Scranton,” said IRC Sheriff Eric Flowers.
40 year old Joseph Michael Komjathy has been charged with transmitting material harmful to a minor, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
Komjathy is a 7th grade science teacher at Stone Magnet Middle School in Melbourne, according to the arrest warrant. The warrant describes a number of sexually explicit messages sent by Komjathy and at one point Komjathy “mentioned traveling to Indian River County to engage in sexual activity."
“He had sent some pretty graphic photographs of himself,” said Sgt. Scranton who chatted online with Komjathy in an undercover capacity during the course of the three week investigation. “We've done multiple cases like this involving other individuals where they believed they were talking with a minor.”
“We know there are bad guys lurking online,” said Sheriff Flowers, “and Sgt. Scranton’s team is on there trying to catch these guys.”
The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office is part of the ‘South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force’.