Sex offender accused of hacking Jacksonville Jaguars’ scoreboard

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A convicted sex offender accused of causing the Jacksonville Jaguars’ scoreboard outages and malfunctions has been identified as Samuel Thompson, who was contracted by the Jaguars from April 2017 to Feb. 2018, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office on Thursday.

According to the release, an investigation revealed that an account associated with Thompson had been used to remotely log into the computer system and send commands to a rogue server that had been placed in the Jaguars’ server room, which resulted in outages during the 2018-2019 season.

The FBI got a search warrant related to the computer intrusion. According to the release, during the search agents recovered a firearm from Thompson’s nightstand.

The release said the FBI also seized multiple pieces of computer equipment and Thompson’s iPhone. In a review of the items, the FBI found that Thompson had received child sex abuse images on his phone and two computers.

Nine days after the search warrant, Thompson traveled from the United States to the Philippines without reporting his international travel, violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. He also traveled to the Bahamas and South Korea and did not report those travel plans, according to the indictment. According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Thompson was arrested Jan. 31.

The United States Attorney’s Office charged Thompson with receiving and possessing child sex abuse images, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act and transmitting damaging commands to a protected computer.

If convicted on all counts, Thompson faces a penalty of 15 years and up to 100 years in federal prison.

According to the release, Thompson has been a convicted felon and required to register as a sex offender since 1998, when he was convicted in Alabama of second-degree sodomy on a child.

The Jaguars released the following statement:

“We are aware of the charges involving a former contractor, and we have cooperated with the investigation as requested. We cannot otherwise comment on this legal matter.”

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