A 36-year-old man who once worked at Middleburg High School and coached youth football teams in Nassau County and Tallahassee has been arrested on seven counts of knowingly possessing or intentionally viewing child sexual abuse material. Clay County Sheriff's Office deputies took Robert Rahn III into custody Tuesday following a search warrant at a residence on Blackhawk Court in Fleming Island, according to the Clay County Sheriff's Office.
According to First Coast News, Rahn worked as a behavioral health assistant at Middleburg High School between August 2021 and February 2022, and also volunteered coaching youth football teams in Nassau County and Tallahassee. The arrest stemmed from an ongoing child exploitation investigation, deputies said. News4JAX reported that occupants of the Blackhawk Court residence exited voluntarily before Rahn was formally detained and charged.
Rahn's history in athletics extends beyond high school and youth leagues. An IssueWire announcement from April 2021 shows he was hired as athletic director and head football coach for the Jacksonville Athletic Academy junior college program, a role from which he stepped down two months later, in June 2021, citing personal reasons.
Multiple Agencies Joined the Investigation
The operation that led to Rahn's arrest was a joint effort involving the Clay County Sheriff's Office Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the North Florida INTERCEPT Task Force, per Action News Jax. Federal and regional law enforcement agencies routinely assist CCSO on child exploitation search warrants of this kind. Clay Today has reported that federal agencies including NCIS and Homeland Security Investigations frequently co-investigate ICAC cases with CCSO because of the county's proximity to major naval facilities such as NAS Jacksonville.
Rahn faces a steep legal exposure. Under Florida Statute § 827.071, possessing or intentionally viewing child sexual abuse material is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each separate count, meaning Rahn's seven charges carry significant cumulative sentencing weight. A conviction would also require lifetime sex offender registration under state law.
Part of a Broader Regional Crackdown
Rahn's arrest lands amid an intensely active period for child exploitation enforcement across Northeast Florida. The Northeast Florida Inter-Agency Child Exploitation and Persons Trafficking Task Force managed 1,220 investigations and 728 CyberTips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2024 alone, resulting in 66 arrests, Hoodline reported in March 2025.
The Clay County Sheriff's Office's ICAC unit investigates child exploitation cases.
CCSO also established a dedicated Special Victims Unit in February 2026 to centralize sex crime investigations, with most of its active caseload involving child sexual abuse material, according to Hoodline's coverage of an 83-year-old Middleburg man charged earlier this month. That unit relies in part on specialized electronic-detection K9s to locate hidden digital storage media during searches.
A Separate Recent Case
In April 2026, a separate arrest in Middleburg followed a tip from a child-protection watchdog group; it was distinct from the September 2026 case involving 83-year-old David Cangemi.
Whether the investigation into Rahn was similarly triggered by a NCMEC CyberTip, and whether any direct contact or harm to victims occurred during his time coaching or working at Middleburg High School, remain open questions that authorities have not addressed publicly.
