Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Principal's Son Grilled Over Child Porn on Computer

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Matt McChesney, 19, faces a long list of charges in Santa Rosa County, Florida related to allegations that he traded and possessed images of child sex abuse material on his computer and phone. The investigation started in early 2025 after the sheriff's office received a tip about McChesney's Discord account. Now body-worn camera video from a search of McChesney's home and a police interview of McChesney at school has been released. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the videos and what McChesney said in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/CrimeFix Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Deputies surround a house as they go in looking for a computer that may be loaded with images of children being abused. And a high school senior is pulled out of class and questioned about the sick images. I have the footage just released in the latest in Matthew Machesney's case. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. You know, there's a reason that Morgan and Morgan is America's largest personal injury law firm. It's because this firm, it fights for its clients and wins a lot in court.

The firm has more than 1,000 lawyers that have recovered $25 billion. Yes, you heard that right for more than 500,000 clients. In the last few months alone, a client in Florida got $12 million when the insurance company offered only $350,000. In PA, another client won $26 million. That was 40 times the insurance company's offer. Morgan and Morgan makes it really easy to fight for what you deserve. You can even start a claim from your cell phone. So if you are ever injured, you can start a claim at for thepeople.com slash crime fix.

Click the link below or skin that QR code that you see right there on your screen. Matthew Mchesney faces a long list of charges in Florida related to child sex abuse material and allegations that he shared the images on his phone and his computer. Mechesney was just 18 years old and a recent graduate of Gulf Breeze High School in the Pensacola area when he was picked up in Washington State last summer on a warrant out of Florida. Matthew, do you have your passport? No, he has to. Okay, I'll be right now.

Do you have his passport? I'll come talk to them in just a minute. Okay. Okay. Matthew, I have some unfortunate news. You have a warrant out of Florida. Are you aware of that? No.

Okay. Well, you have a warrant out of Florida that has a nationwide extradition, okay? So go ahead and stand up and face a wall. You're going to be placed under arrest. So my partner's going to search you. Just make sure you don't have your weapons or anything like that on it. And we'll do our best to explain what's going on, okay? You might just move you right, Leo.

Now, Machesny later turned himself in when he returned to Florida, and an attorney entered a not guilty plea to these charges on his behalf. He's currently free on bail. Now, I have new video for you from months earlier when Mechesney was interviewed at his high school and detectives searched his house. I'll get to that in just a moment. Plus, you are going to hear from Matt Mechesney in that police interview. Now, the reason there's so much interest in this case, at least part of the reason is because Matt McChesney's mother was an assistant principal at an elementary school and allowed him to participate in an event where high school seniors walked through the school after she knew he'd been questioned about the sexual images on his phone and computer. Kim McChesney was placed on administrative leave in August of 2025, and a spokesperson just told me that that investigation, it's still ongoing. and Kim Macheny remains to this day on administrative leave pending the outcome of that investigation. It was May 8, 2025 at 9.46 a.m. when police went to the home where Matt Mechesney lived with his parents to execute a search warrant.

They were investigating a tip about pornography. A number of officers approached the house surrounding it. This officer stood guard at the back of the house with a view of the swimming pool. Another set of officers approaches the home from the front, and if you listen carefully, you can hear one of them talking to one of Machezni's parents explaining the search warrant. 54, 117. Now, at the same time that the search warrant is being executed at Matt Mechesney's home, detectives are pulling him out of class at Gulf Breeze High School. What's up, buddy? That would be awesome. Hey, I'm Detective Thompson.

And this is Detective Pinto. So I'm going to kind of talk to you and explain why I'm here and why we called you down here. Okay? Okay. So what I do, I do the internet crimes against children, so ICAC. And what that is, is there is the online world when things are being shared, conversations, you know, nothing ever goes away on the internet, right? So when certain conversations happen, they get flagged in the system. When that happens, it goes to an

organization called Nick Mech, which is kind of like a clearinghouse for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I'm not here because of any missing kids, okay? I don't have any concern with that with you. But I do want you to know that, that's that that's kind of how my investigation started. You don't have to talk to me. You're free to go at any time. Tell me a Paxan, whatever. I know you're only here for first period.

What is Paxan? Paxan, like, I'm not talking to you. Oh. Yeah. Sorry, it's a term from when I grew up. So my investigation is in regards to Discord. Do you have a Discord account? I do.

Okay. Do you mind sharing with me your account information? Yes. Okay. Yes, you'll share it or? Yes. Matt Mchesney is being cooperative and you will see that he agrees to talk with the detective. There are going to be points where the audio drops out and there's a reason for that. In Florida, when footage of a person's police interview is released prior to the case being adjudicated and they make an admission, that admission is redacted. The account that you don't have access to is literal loaf of bread? Yes. Okay. So this is what's going on. If you don't mind just putting your phone down right here, okay.

Is your account was flagged. That's why you don't have access to it. And I think you know why your account was black. Do you have an idea? I think so. Okay. Why don't you tell me if you want? Young people.

So that's why I'm here. So I will let you know right now there are, there's another group headed to the house. Okay. Um, when I received the cyber tip, it included at least three images of what was on your Discord account. Okay. Um, the girls were, one of them was probably around eight. The other one, you know, 11 is. and then a super, super young one.

The people you were having conversations with, do you know who those people are, or is it just kind of someone you met on a server? It was just random people. Okay. I know I've got kids, too, so I know Discord's on the phone. Did you use your computer at home at all when you were communicating?

Okay. Is there a passcode on your computer at home? Mind sharing it if there is, or... Yes, there is. Do you mind sharing the passcode? It's, um... Um, not today. So, um, this is kind of the process, okay?

Um, you know, since you confirm the account and everything, you're being super cooperative, all right? Um, today I'm just here talking to you. Okay. We did out of courtesy. Your mom's going to know that we're up here. Okay. It'll be up to you on what you want to explain to her. I don't know if, you know, I got a couple of bosses that are going to the house.

They might explain something to her. I don't know. So although you won't be leaving here with your phone today, you're more than welcome to go get another phone. Okay. Um, do you, uh, is there going to be anything on your phone or on your computer or anything like that? Okay. Do you mind sharing the passcode to your phone?

And, um, I, when I went through your Discord account, I think you had the one computer set up, like a gaming. Yes. Do you have any other electronics at home? A laptop for school stuff. Is that, um, is it school property or, no? No, it's personal property. There's nothing on that. What schooling do you use that for?

The dual enrollment stuff? Yeah. It's not through PSC, though. It's like a personal laptop. Okay. So when you're accessing the discord and you're exchanging the child pornography, what devices are you using? How long has it been going on?

How did you get into the world? Again here, the audio is redacted because the detectives with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office say that Machenny made an amaze. The questioning continued. So you guys are trading people your age, age appropriate, okay. Did it just get to where you wanted younger? Because people your age just wasn't, and I know this is going to sound like, it's very normal.

It's not, but it is in this world. You know, you start off watching the pornography that's going to be around your age, and then it just no longer satisfies you. So you look for something else. Is that what happened? You just started going younger and younger and younger? I like people my age. Okay.

I wanted to just see more of that. So how did you get a hold of the younger stuff? The audio here is redacted because Matt Mechesney, according to the detectives, makes another admission. He's a high school senior at this point, and he knows that he's in big trouble. In a report documenting this police interview, the detective wrote,

Matthew stated the following. I informed him my investigation was in regards to discord, and if he would be willing to share his account information, which he was, and pulled out his phone. He pulled up his current Discord account and stated this account name. He did lose access to an account, but could not remember when. I read off his phone number, email, and account name, which he confirmed all the information as his. I asked if he knew why his account was flagged, which he stated he believes it was because, he was sharing pictures of young people. The people he shared and traded images with were unknown to him and he never met anyone in

person. He stated there is going to be CSAM that's child sex abuse material on his phone and desktop computer. Matthew's cell phone was seized at this time. The detective continues her questioning of Matt Machesney. Remember, he's a high school senior. And they're at Gulf Breeze High School as this is all taking place. One of the conversations that I printed out, let's see, with a Skyler, do you remember a conversation with a Skyler?

And it's not uncommon. You know, you said you were talking to random people. That's totally fun. And, but they're saying that they have a mega link. They're not a scammer, you know. And in this world, some people can be a little nervous. You know, you're scamming me for this kind of stuff. Did anybody ever send you any mega links? Did you save any of that stuff? Or do you have your own megal links? No, I don't have my own.

Is there on your new Discord account, were you continuing those kinds of conversations and videos? No, okay. I haven't talked to anything. Do you remember about when you made the new account? I think like the day after my first one got up in, because I do use it to tell my friends and game. No, and that's like kids don't text anymore,

they use Discord, or they use Snapchat. That or, um, yeah, I don't use Instagram. I don't use Snapchat, actually. Mm-hmm. But yeah, it's crazy, you know, you've got some generations that don't like to text, which is probably like, you know, your mom, your dad. Then you have the generation for us.

We prefer texting sometimes over phone calls. And then y'all's generation, don't even text. All you're using like Discord and WhatsApp and things like that. It's just weird how things change over time. Have you met anybody in person? No, okay. So you haven't done any in-person trades or anything like that? I never met with anybody in person or anything for that.

Okay. Who's home right now? My dad and my brother was at the gym. Okay. Okay. Is there, does anybody else have access to your account? Like my Discord account? No.

Okay. Does anybody else have access to your computers? My parents know my password. Okay. they don't go on it. Okay. If they were to go on your computer and snoop through it, do you have a hidden folder or anything so that way they don't find these images?

The conversation with Machesney continues. Again, any admissions are redacted. Mechesney confirms he doesn't have any other electronic devices aside from his gaming computer, his laptop for school, and his phone. Why would there be younger on there if you don't like the younger? And when you're doing the trading, are you only doing it on Discord or is there another application like Telegard or Telegram, WhatsApp or are you only doing it on Discord? Is there a Sessions account on your phone or on the computer so it's not on your phone? Are there any questions that you have?

So I cannot, where are you going? USF. I've already been accepted. Okay. So that's... Scholarships. Yeah. That will be up to them. Okay. I'm not going to be reaching out to them. I'm not going to be calling them. It's whatever their policies and things like that. Okay. The plan today is you go back to class and you do what you need to do for the remainder of the day. If that's, you know, skipping your dual enrollment, that's whatever you need to do. Okay.

Right. No, I know. That's why we had to come up here in the first period. Do you normally go home after first period? Today, I am. Okay. Well, don't be surprised that when you go home, that we may still be there. If that's the case, depending on what we've got going on, you can't go in the house yet, or you won't be able to go in your room yet until we leave. Okay. Are there any electronics in your car? Just the phone charging? Okay.

And what kind of phone is that? iPhone 13. iPhone 13? Okay. Do you have any other phones at the house? Family phones, but none for me. Okay. I don't have a phone.

So, but just so you are aware, you know, there was, I did do up a search warrant for the house. Okay. So regardless of if you're at home, if you weren't home or anything like that, we were still going to go to the house. Okay. And then we were just going to track you down if you weren't at school. Okay. So it'll be up. you on what you want to explain to your parents. Okay. I'm not sure what information is being relayed

to your dad. But you are 18, so to an extent, I don't have to tell them anything if you don't want me to, okay? But other than that, that's how I leave it today. Okay? And then I will do up a search warrant to have a forensic analysis done for your devices. And depending on what comes back, we'll determine, you know, how we move forward, what charges, how many charges, and things like that. Okay? Deep breath. It'll be okay. It sucks right now.

But it's not the end of the world. Okay? your parents will likely chew your butt out. Okay, depending. Teach their own on how they parent. But yes. But just know, they do still love you. Okay?

You don't look like you're in a family where you're going to be shunned or anything like that. They love you. It's just going to be, everybody's going to have to process this, okay? And they may process it differently. So just kind of, I say be aware of that you're only 18. You don't really understand things like that. But just know everybody is going to be affected by this, and they kind of deal with everything differently, okay?

The way you process something is different than how your mom's going to process something, okay? But the time frame for stuff to come back, you know, it can be, maybe two or three months. I can't give a good answer on that because I'm not in the forensic case, and it really depends on their caseload, okay? But I will, I've got a card in my car. If you would like my card that's got my contact info, or we can just leave our info with your parents.

What would you like to do? Can I take the card? Yeah, yeah. Let me go get you one, okay, bud? And what I'm going to do, I'm going to put this on. Yeah, put on airplane. The phones are placed on airplane mode so they can't be erased remotely. Matt Mechesney then has a question for the detective.

No, we don't do that. If the college pulls some kind of like record for you and they can see, they can get that deep in, then the college will make that decision. But we won't go out of our way to try and ruin. That's up for the college itself. So it's only if they get a search or something and they saw like... Yeah, I don't know what they do as far as who they admit and whatnot, but if they were to request something from you from law enforcement's background,

we're not going to call them and be like, this is what... So we're going to get out of here, okay? But like I said, you're more than welcome to get a new phone. You can disconnect this phone, and you know, transfer your phone number over and things like that okay so you're not having to go through that whole mess you absolutely can get more electronics nobody's stopping you from doing any of that okay and then if you've got any questions my cell phone numbers on there my work email my work desk phone I text it's whatever you need

okay all right well you head off to class and um what time is it 1004 so time for you go home But we don't plan on, you know, trying to really dork everything up today. Okay? So if you go home, just know we're probably still there. Because when we leave here, that's where I'm going to head over. Okay? Thank you, sir. Yeah, go ahead.

The images that detectives said they found on Macezni's devices, they're graphic. I will not go into detail about them. The descriptions are provided by detectives in court documents, and they are incredibly disturbing. Last month, a hearing was scheduled after Matt Machenny's lawyer asked the court to modify the terms of his bail to allow him to use a computer for work and school. But then that hearing was canceled. It has not been rescheduled. I'll keep an eye on the case and let you know what happens. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.