UF psychiatrist arrested on child pornography and animal cruelty charges

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jesse Roger Armstrong, 34, was arrested yesterday on 10 child pornography charges and three animal cruelty charges; at the time of the alleged offenses, he was employed by the University of Florida as a psychiatrist.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip on August 23, 2024 with two images, at least one of which showed a nude pre-pubescent female engaging in a sexual act with a second pre-pubescent female. The image had been uploaded to Bing to conduct a reverse image search.

A subpoena to Cox for the upload IP address produced the address of Armstrong’s home in Haile Plantation. The Gainesville Police Department detective conducting the investigation also reported that Armstrong was employed by the University of Florida as a psychiatrist and that the University of Florida Police Department confirmed his employment; web searches for his name bring up pages that list psychiatry residents by year, but Armstrong’s information has been scrubbed from those pages on UF’s site.

A search warrant was executed at Armstrong’s home on December 12, 2024, and post Miranda, Armstrong reportedly said he had lived there for about 18 months and that other family members had previously lived there but had moved away in June 2024.

Armstrong reportedly said he does reverse image searches on Bing about three times a week; he said it was possible he could have used images showing juveniles because he thought they were not juveniles, and he said he probably wouldn’t recognize the subjects in an image he’d uploaded in August. When asked whether he had ever uploaded a photo of a subject of questionable age to a reverse image search, he reportedly said, “Not intentionally.”

Officers seized “numerous” electronic devices from Armstrong’s home, and a forensic analysis of the devices reportedly found 10 images of child exploitation material that showed pre-pubescent females and at least one male engaging in various sexual acts.

Three of the images reportedly showed animals mounting humans from the rear, leading to the animal cruelty charges.

Armstrong has been charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography and three counts of aggravated animal cruelty. He has no local criminal history; Judge Meshon Rawls set bail at $325,000.

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.