MIAMI – Miami police arrested a high-ranking North Miami Beach official Wednesday after they accused him of uploading more than two dozen child sexual abuse videos and images online.
Deputy City Manager David Scott is now facing 15 felony charges. Authorities said the 63-year-old was arrested at his Edgewater home after police executed a search warrant. He was fired just hours after his arrest, officials said.
According to a Miami Police Department arrest report, the investigation into Scott began in 2023 after cloud storage service Synchronoss flagged 31 files of child abuse material uploaded to his account alongside personal photos.
After executing the warrant, police said they found “numerous” illicit files on his phone.
The report describes graphic acts of rape and abuse the victims suffered in 15 videos. Authorities said 14 of the videos depicted young boys, while another showed a girl; the youngest victim was about 2 years old.
Authorities said Scott had one file in which a young victim was being abused while “unconscious.”
Jail records show Scott was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center just before 5 p.m. — no bond had been set as of early Wednesday evening.
”Although the city has not been asked to provide any assistance or information, we will fully cooperate with and expedite any requests made of North Miami Beach,” a North Miami Beach city spokesperson said in a statement to local media outlets Wednesday.
In a news release, MPD Chief Manny Morales said in part, “Our Special Victims Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit conducted an investigation that has led to the arrest of an individual who happens to sit at the highest level of a local municipal government. This is highly disappointing, especially given their role of trust and the fact that the victims are children — one of our most vulnerable populations.”
In that same release, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she was “shocked and disappointed to learn that a senior governmental official would be charged with the possession of child pornography.”
“As State Attorney, I know that our law enforcement community and my prosecutors are committed to ensuring that no child suffers the denigration, exploitation and abuse at the core of every child pornography arrest,” she said. “Child pornography is always a crime centered on exploiting the innocence of our children.”