Former St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Blake Gruny, 48, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 10 years of sex offender probation on Friday morning, June 20, after pleading no contest in April to 10 counts of Possession of Sexual Performance by a Child and Unlawful Use of a Two-Way Communication Device.
The investigation began in October 2023 when the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Unit received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding the upload of child pornography to Snapchat. Through further investigation, detectives successfully identified Gruny as the Snapchat user. Their findings uncovered several videos of children engaging in sexual acts on his account.
Gruny, who was a sheriff’s deputy at the time of his arrest in October 2023, was immediately fired from his position following the charges.
The case was investigated by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant State Attorneys Mark Lewis and Sarah Thomas successfully prosecuted the case for the state. The Honorable Lee Smith presided over the case and pronounced the sentence.
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