UF Health Patient Care Assistant arrested on 28 child pornography charges

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – James Harold Major, 21, was arrested yesterday and charged with 27 counts of possession of child pornography and use of a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony.

On June 26, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a CyberTip that 17 videos of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) had been uploaded to a Google Drive account. A Gainesville Police Department Detective issued a subpoena to Google and received upload IP addresses, “numerous” login IP addresses, an email address, and other information from the account. Google also sent the videos in the CyberTip and 36 additional CSAM images and videos to the detective.

One of the upload addresses belonged to Cox Communications, and a subpoena to Cox tied the address to an apartment at Gainesville Place Apartments (2800 SW 35th Pl).

Subpoenas were also sent to Charter Communications, T-Mobile, and the University of Florida for login IP addresses belonging to those providers. Charter Communications reported that the IP address belonged to a relative of Major’s in Tampa. T-Mobile reported that the phone number associated with an IP address was on an account belonging to a different relative of Major’s. The University of Florida reported that the IP address in their network was part of a pool and could not be resolved to any specific device or user.

The detective searched a law enforcement database for individuals residing at the Tampa address, compared James Major’s driver’s license photograph with images found in the Google Drive account, and determined that they were the same person.

A search of LinkedIn showed that Major is a student at the University of Florida and a Patient Care Assistant at UF Health. The phone number listed in the CyberTip is also reportedly associated with Major.

A second CyberTip was received on September 11 when an acquaintance of Major called NCMEC to report that Major had CSAM on his computer and had uploaded it to Google Drive. He said Major told him that Google had detected the CSAM and had deactivated his account and that he subsequently deleted some of the content from his devices.

On September 23, the UF Police Department reportedly confirmed that Major is a current student at UF and an employee at Shands.

On October 17, a search warrant was executed at his apartment by the Gainesville Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Division and GPD SWAT, and officers located Major at a different location. Major reportedly confirmed that he lived at the Gainesville Place address and that he is a student at UF and a Patient Care Assistant at Shands.

Post Miranda, Major reportedly admitted owning the accounts listed in the Cybertip and admitted that he had uploaded CSAM to his Google Drive account. He said he got the videos from Telegram and that he had “stumbled” on the CSAM when he “wasn’t in his right mind.” He reportedly said he decided to save the content and upload it to his Google Drive; he was reportedly able to describe the content of at least one of the videos. When asked about the additional 36 CSAM images and videos, he reportedly said he thought they had been saved to his account “years ago” and he believed they showed post-pubescent males; the detective noted that CSAM had been uploaded to his Google Drive since 2020, but 10 of the 36 images/videos were uploaded this year and are of pre-pubescent males.

When asked if there would be evidence that he had solicited CSAM, he reportedly said there would be; he reportedly said he wasn’t sure whether there would be evidence that he had shared the content. He reportedly said there would be evidence that he had chatted in a sexual manner with a minor or received CSAM from a minor. He reportedly denied any “hand-on” offenses with any minors.

He has been charged with 27 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of using a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony. He has no local criminal history, and Judge Meshon Rawls set bail at $2.8 million.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.