Jalen Kitna Accepts Plea Deal, Avoids Child Pornography Charges

Editors’ note, July 18, 2023, 5:10 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to clarify the initial charges in this case and provide an additional comment from Jalen Kitna’s attorney.

Ex-Florida quarterback Jalen Kitna agreed to a plea deal Wednesday in Gainesville, Fla., that resulted in the dismissal of five felony charges connected to his arrest in November. 

Kitna pleaded no contest to two counts of disorderly conduct, both of which are second-degree misdemeanors. He was sentenced to one year of probation by Eighth Judicial Circuit Judge Susan Miller-Jones, but he will not face any jail time and will not be registered as a sex offender. Kitna had been facing two counts of distribution of child exploitation material and three counts of possession of child pornography, according to a Gainesville Police Department spokesperson.

“I want to start off by apologizing to my family, my friends and those that care about me,” Kitna, the son of former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna, said in court Wednesday. “Their support through this whole ordeal has meant a lot to me. The hardest thing about this whole process has been seeing how it’s affected them.

“The valuable lessons that I’ve learned through this whole deal have been very helpful. I’m looking forward to applying those things and moving forward.”

Kitna was arrested on Nov. 30 by the Gainesville Police Department following a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user on a Discord account believed to belong to Kitna was distributing child sexual abuse material through the online chat platform. He was charged with two counts of distribution of child exploitation material and three counts of possession of child pornography.

Kitna, who had signed with Florida in 2021 and played in just four games during his redshirt freshman season with the Gators in ’22, was kicked off the team shortly after his arrest. He was also banned from Florida’s campus through November ’25, according to ESPN.

“What we’ve got here today is a result that’s fair, and the right result,” Kitna’s attorney, Ron Kozlowski, said following the verdict, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “Obviously, the state agrees, and we feel good about that. This is going give Jalen an opportunity to move on to the next step, whatever that is.”

Kozlowski subsequently provided additional comments about the case in a statement to Sports Illustrated.

“The investigation showed that Jalen had not downloaded child porn, did not search for it, and did not intentionally share it,” Kowlowski wrote. “… If Jalen Kitna were a child pornographer, he would be in prison right now. No ‘deal’ was cut to avoid prison, and he got no special treatment. If he were not a prominent college football player living in a fishbowl, I believe he never would have been charged with anything.”