PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – A Ponte Vedra Beach man who told detectives he’s employed by the PGA Tour and works with children is now facing charges of possessing child porn.
Joshua Gumlia, 49, was taken into custody on Monday.
According to his Twitter biography and his LinkedIn page, Gumlia is a club fitter at the PGA Tour Performance Center at TPC Sawgrass.
His arrest follows a months-long investigation and according to his arrest report, Gumlia told a detective that he felt child porn is a victimless crime.
The criminal case against Gumlia started back in late April. That’s when internet service provider Yahoo! reported the discovery of child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which then contacted the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
The uploaded material consisted of 12 files that were traced back to a Verizon phone, a Yahoo email and an IP address reportedly belonging to Gumlia.
Verizon then provided investigators with Gumlia’s work and home phone number, Yahoo email address, and home address associated with his Verizon account. By late June, after multiple attempts to speak with Gumlia at his Ponte Vedra Beach home had failed, detectives caught up with him at the PGA Tour Performance Center inside TPC Sawgrass where Gumlia said he works with junior golfers.
According to this arrest report, Gumlia told the detective that he knew looking up child porn was wrong and disgusting, but that he felt it was a victimless crime. A forensic search of his iPhone and iPad turned up a search history for child porn. A forensic download of the devices led to the discovery of pictures of nude children performing sex acts, according to the report.
Gumlia was arrested on four counts of possessing child pornography.
Three of his neighbors that News4JAX spoke with were completely shocked by the details of his arrest.
“He didn’t impress me as that kind of guy. Just very quiet. He kept to himself. To read that and see it is disappointing,” said one neighbor who asked to remain anonymous and has six young grandchildren. “Well, it’s not a victimless crime. That’s for sure.”
Gumlia remains in jail on a $40,000 bond.
News4JAX reached out to the PGA Tour for comment, but so far, no one has returned the messages.