A Bexar County Sheriff's Office cadet applicant has been arrested on charges of possession of child pornography. Joseph Matthew Juarez, 22, was apprehended following a background check that revealed "disturbing images" on his phone, according to a statement obtained by KENS 5.

Sheriff Javier Salazar confirmed that this marked the second occasion since June that child porn was discovered on a cadet applicant's device. Juarez, who now faces the stark reality of criminal charges, was taken into custody and subsequently booked at the Bexar County jail. "During the course of the background investigation, one of the background investigators had occasion to look through the applicants cell phone with consent and found some concerning images on that phone. Those images were later determined to be child pornography. That suspect was later placed under arrest," Salazar told FOX San Antonio.

The earlier instance in June involved 34-year-old Cesar Jose Merced Lozano, who was also arrested and booked for possession of child pornography. The recurrence of such cases has raised questions about the efficacy of background checks and the importance of thorough screenings in the recruitment process for those intended to serve as first responders.

Salazar provided a perspective on the apprehensions, emphasizing the gravity of the matter: "Here we caught two people that could quite possibly have to some predatory tendencies in the future and we prevented them from becoming first responders," he told FOX San Antonio.