A man from Palmetto who was charged with several counts of having materials for sexual abuse of children pleaded not guilty right before the hearing.
Court records show that Anthony Richie Medina, 33, pleaded “not guilty” to 30 counts of having materials for sexual abuse of children in a Manatee County courtroom on August 19. That day, Medina was going to court.
When the Bradenton Herald called Medina’s lawyer on Friday afternoon, he refused to say anything.
In 2021, Medina was arrested by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office after agents said they found at least 50 pictures and videos on her electronics that showed child sexual abuse or exploitation.
Police said in an affidavit that around that time, the sheriff’s office marked an IP address as one that was downloading information about sexual abuse of children. Detectives said they were sure that some of these files contained fully downloaded pictures and videos of child sexual abuse with “live pictures of real people.”
According to court records, the sheriff’s office asked Frontier Communications for details about the subscriber who owned that IP address. They found that it belonged to Medina. The sheriff’s office said that the subpoena also found an address in Palmetto that was linked to the account.
Detectives said they took several electronic items from Medina’s room when they carried out a search warrant at the house. These included a desktop computer and a thumb drive. Detectives said they found 52 pictures or movies on these devices that showed child sexual abuse or exploitation.
Police said in an affidavit that the movies and pictures showed girls between the ages of 1 and 15.
Records from the court show that Judge Frederick Mercurio will punish Medina at a later time.