A married UF student turned himself in to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Saturday on charges of downloading and keeping child pornography on his computer.
Detectives working with a federal child Internet safety task force got their first warrant to search 21-year-old Michael Sheridan’s home last February.
Authorities took anything from his apartment that might have contained the downloaded pornography, such as computers, hard drives or thumb drives, said ASO Lt. Scott Anderson.
Detectives found videos and pictures of children involved in abusive sexual acts. They turned in their findings to the State Attorney’s Office, which issued a warrant for Sheridan’s arrest Saturday.
Anderson said digital evidence usually takes a long time to sift through. It isn’t uncommon, he said, for an investigation like this to take a year before authorities can secure a warrant.
Sheridan was contacted about the charges and turned himself in Saturday at about 2:30 a.m. He was charged with two counts of possessing child pornography. His bond was set at $50,000, and he was released at 3:30 p.m.
According to his Facebook profile, Sheridan is enrolled as a student at UF and has been married for almost two years. He describes himself as “very conservative” politically and lists himself as as a member of the Mormon faith.
