A U.S. District judge in Florida has sentenced a convicted sex offender to 220 years in federal prison. Samuel Arthur Thompson, 53, was found guilty of producing, receiving, and possessing child sex abuse material. He was also charged with hacking the jumbotron in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ stadium after his contract was not renewed upon discovering his status as a registered sex offender.
The sentencing was handed down by U.S. District Judge Brian J. Davis. Thompson was convicted by a federal jury in November 2023 for the mentioned offenses, and also for producing child sex abuse material while being required to register as a sex offender, violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
Thompson had a previous conviction for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Alabama in 1998, which mandated him to register as a sex offender.
According to federal prosecutors, Thompson was employed by the Jaguars around 2013 to assist in the design and installation of the stadium’s main screen. He was later responsible for operating it during game days.
His contract with the Jaguars stipulated that he disclose his conviction, which he failed to do. After the team found out about his conviction and status as a registered sex offender in January 2018, they decided not to renew his contract before it expired in March 2018. Thompson then installed remote access software on a spare server in the Jaguars’ server room and manipulated the Jumbotron during three NFL games in the 2018 season, causing malfunctions.
The Jaguars identified the intruder during a game in December 2018, capturing the IP address, which led the FBI to trace it back to Thompson’s residence. In July 2019, the FBI searched his home, seizing computers and a firearm that he was prohibited from possessing. They discovered files showing Thompson had used his devices to access the server remotely, along with numerous images and videos of child sex abuse material.
FBI Jacksonville’s acting special agent in charge, Coult Markovsky, stated, “Samuel Thompson repeatedly abused and exploited innocent children, inflicting immeasurable hurt on his victims. He also abused and exploited his employer by installing malicious software to manipulate their systems, which could have caused significantly more damage if not detected.”
The Jaguars expressed gratitude to the prosecutors for their efforts on the case in a statement released after Thompson’s conviction.
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