A convicted child molester was sentenced to 220 years in federal prison for producing child sexual abuse material and hacking the jumbotron at EverBank Stadium, the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, after the team fired him upon realizing he was a registered sex offender.
Samuel Arthur Thompson, 53, of St. Augustine, Florida, was sentenced by a federal judge on Monday (March 25) after being convicted of producing, receiving and possessing sexual images of children, producing such material while required to register as a sex offender, violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, sending unauthorized damaging commands to a protected computer and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon in November, according to court records obtained by ESPN. Thompson was arrested after being deported back to the U.S. by the Philippines in 2020, having fled to the country about six months prior when the FBI executed a search warrant at his home and seized several computers, a criminal complaint confirmed.
The 53-year-old, who was previously convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Alabama in 1998, was found to be in possession of thousands of images and hundreds of videos of child sexual abuse during the FBI search, which included videos and images that he produced one month prior featuring children who had been in his care and custody. The Jaguars reportedly hired Thompson as a contractor in 2013 to consult on the design and installation of its video board and he later operated the jumbotron during games, however, his contract was not renewed in 2018 after the team learned of his prior conviction and status as a sex offender.
Thompson reportedly installed remote access software on a spare server in the Jaguars' server room and hacked computers controlling the jumbotron, which included causing the video boards to malfunction repeatedly during three games in the 2018 season after he was let go by the franchise. The team eventually found the spare server, removed its access to the jumbotron and was able to collect network information about the intruder the next time he attempted to access it, which led to the FBI tracing his home, prosecutors said.
The FBI executed a search warrant at Thompson's residence in July 2019 and seized a phone, a tablet and two laptops, all of which had been linked to the jumbotron server hacking, according to log files, as well as a firearm, which was a violation due to his felon status. The Jaguars issued a statement thanking federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office following Thompson's conviction in November.
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