MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Former North Miami Beach Deputy City Manager David Scott wore an anti-suicide vest as he appeared in court Thursday to answer to 15 felony charges after Miami police said he had more than two dozen images and videos depicting child sexual abuse.
Authorities arrested Scott, 63, on Wednesday. He was fired soon after.
The investigation began more than a year ago, police said, after Scott uploaded the illicit content to a cloud server account.
They said after serving a search warrant, they found 15 videos on his cellphone that depicted victims — mostly boys, anywhere from 2 to 10 years old — being raped or otherwise sexually abused by men.
Authorities said he tried buying 6,000 images of children being sexually abused via social media platforms.
Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer ordered Scott to be held on an $18,000 bond. Scott said he couldn’t afford an attorney after being fired so he is being represented by a public defender.
If he does post bond, he’ll be required to wear a GPS monitor and to not have unsupervised access to children.