Trial Opens for Ex-M-DCPS Autism Specialist Accused of Sharing Child Porn

Opening statements began this week in the trial of Robert Turner, a former Miami-Dade County Public Schools autism specialist and licensed school psychologist accused of possessing and distributing child pornography over social media. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda is presiding over the proceedings, which mark the courtroom culmination of a case that began two years ago when police were notified that Turner had allegedly posted child pornography online.

According to WSVN, Turner was arrested after that tip reached investigators, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools subsequently fired him from his post working with students on the autism spectrum. The district he worked for is enormous in scope: Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the third-largest public school district in the country, running more than 400 schools and serving roughly 335,000 students, according to World Atlas.

How the Case Against Turner Came Together

The investigation traces back to August 2024, when Instagram submitted a cyber tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after someone uploaded child sexual abuse material to the platform, according to footage of the case reviewed on YouTube. Detectives traced that upload to an account belonging to Turner, then 62. When officers arrived to arrest him at his residence, he reportedly barricaded himself inside a bathroom and refused to come out, forcing a Special Response Team to force entry and take him into custody, per the same footage.

During post-arrest questioning by Miami-Dade police, Turner admitted he was the owner of the Instagram account used to share the videos, the footage shows. Following his arrest, he was charged with five counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of promoting child pornography. Bond was set at $28,000, with conditions including house arrest and strict prohibitions on internet use and contact with children.

What Turner Faces Under Florida Law

Under Florida Statutes Section 827.071, simple possession of child pornography is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison per count, while promoting or transmitting the material is a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years per count, according to the Florida Senate. Because Florida law treats each individual file as a separate criminal count, Turner's five possession counts and two promotion counts carry the potential for decades of combined prison exposure. A central task for prosecutors during trial will be tying Turner directly to the digital uploads and validating the admissions he allegedly made to police after his arrest.

State lawmakers moved earlier this year to replace the term child pornography with child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, across Florida's criminal code, reflecting a broader shift toward language that emphasizes the harm done to victims, as Hoodline has previously reported.

Part of a Wider Pattern in Miami-Dade Schools

Turner's case is not the only one to touch the Miami-Dade school system in recent years. In September 2024, substitute teacher George Rafols was arrested on child pornography charges after a separate NCMEC cyber tip prompted an investigation by Homestead Police and Miami-Dade Schools Police, with the district terminating him immediately following his arrest. Roughly five months later, a Miami-Dade charter school IT director was charged with similar offenses.

The tip that led to Turner's arrest fits a much larger national pattern. In 2025 alone, NCMEC's CyberTipline processed 21.3 million reports containing 61.8 million files of suspected child sexual exploitation, including 19.5 million reports specifically tied to child sexual abuse material, according to MissingKids.org. Miami-Dade authorities have brought multiple similar cases in just the past two years, including a Brickell man charged with 15 counts in May 2025 after uploading CSAM to Dropbox and a Miami-Dade man charged with 21 counts in July.

The trial against Turner is ongoing in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, with the allegations against him remaining just that until a verdict is reached.