Ex-Florida QB Jalen Kitna Speaks Out After Child Porn Charges Dropped
Eight months after being arrested on child pornography charges and dismissed from the University of Florida football team, QB Jalen Kitna is telling his side of the story.
Kitna was arrested last December on two counts of distribution of child exploitation material and three counts of possession of child pornography. The felony charges were ultimately dropped last month when he accepted a plea deal, and now the 20-year-old is speaking out.
"Out of respect to the legal process I have chosen to remain silent the last 8 months, knowing the accusations levied against me as a teenager were not accurate and would be proven to be not true. The extensive 6 month long investigation brought the prosecution to the conclusion I knew all along - this was not a child pornography case," Kitna said in a statement to TMZ.
"November 30, 2022, at the age of 19, detectives arrived early in the morning and started asking about my pornography use. I was totally compliant, I shared all my passwords, and hid nothing from them.
"They told me an image I shared online was potentially of an underage female. I was shocked, because I had found it on an easily accessible, legal site, and I was never looking for illegal material. The photo included only a portion of the female body, I had no reason to believe the photo might be illegal."
Jalen Kitna hopes to resume football career
Kitna, the son of former NFL QB Jon Kitna, went on to explain that he was cuffed, even though he believed he did nothing wrong.
"Regardless, they arrested me on suspicion of possessing child pornography," the former Florida QB said. "As they put me in handcuffs I tried to process everything. It sounded like they believed I searched out and shared illegal pictures, but I knew that I had not."
The young QB then said he was evaluated by a physician and showed no "deviant characteristics."
"After a full day of evaluation and testing by a specialized doctor of 40+ years, the doctor determined I have no deviant characteristics, had normal interests as a teenager, and I’m in the lowest possible percentile for likelihood to commit a crime," he continued, adding that his recent plea deal was "not an admission of guilt."
"I was not adjudicated by the court, meaning there was no conviction," he said. "The police have returned all my devices, because they contain no illegal material. And the University of Florida has lifted the campus ban imposed during the investigation."