Ex-Florida quarterback Jalen Kitna accepted a plea deal Wednesday that dropped five felony child pornography charges following his November arrest.
The former UF player – who was suspended from the football team after his arrest – instead pleaded guilty to two counts of disorderly conduct, second degree misdemeanors, according to an Associated Press (AP) story.
Kitna, 20, will be placed on six months’ probation for each charge. Eighth Judicial Circuit Judge Susan Miller-Jones did not require Kitna to register as a sex offender or levy a fine.
Kitna was arrested on Nov. 30, 2022, by the Gainesville Police Department after an investigation by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Division found two images that Kitna shared via Discord.
While being interviewed by a GPD detective, Kitna said he remembered sharing the two images but believed them to be legal, according to the release. Kitna said he realized he should not have shared those two images, based on the reaction from the other Discord user that he shared them with. Kitna said he received an email from Discord notifying him that his account was deactivated due to a violation of the terms of service.
GPD seized Kitna’s electronic devices as part of the search warrant and reported that a preliminary analysis of the devices revealed three additional images of child sexual abuse material. Kitna was arrested for two counts of distribution of child exploitation material and three counts of possession of child pornography.
Kitna, the son of former quarterback Jon Kitna, who played 14 years in the NFL, was a redshirt freshman at UF and made his college debut on Oct. 2, 2022, vs. Eastern Washington.
With his parents sitting behind him in the courtroom on Wednesday, Kitna read a statement of contrition, according to the AP story.
“I want to start off by apologizing to my family, my friends and those that care about me,” Kitna said. “Their support through this whole ordeal has meant a lot to me. The hardest thing about this whole process has been seeing how it’s affected them.
“The valuable lessons that I’ve learned through this whole deal have been very helpful. I’m looking forward to applying those things and moving forward.”
The kid made stupid mistakes in judgement and likely became infatuated with younger girls. This will certainly deter his actions and hopefully make him a productive citizen. Despite all the anger from some of and easy deal, he never touched one person, didn’t hold anyone down, didn’t manufacture or create porn or even spend money on it. He deserves another chance.