Former Loften High School Student Convicted of Sex Offense
A former student at Loften High School, Jack Cheves, 19, was convicted of lewd or lascivious exhibition last week following a no contest plea.
Cheves will spend roughly six months in jail, as he received a nine-month sentence but gets credit for 98 days he already served.
Facing a maximum prison sentence of 15 years, Cheves took a plea deal that was accepted by Judge David Kreider.
Court records show Cheves was facing 26 sex offense charges across three different cases; however, all but one were dropped by the State Attorney’s Office. Many of the charges were dropped as part of Cheves' plea deal.
Gainesville Police Department Detective Desiree Russano reported that her investigation found “over 180 felony violations of Florida Statutes, specifically for the sexual abuse of children under the age of 16, committed by [Cheves] as it pertains to both [victims],” a striking contrast to what the State Attorney’s Office decided to prosecute.
When Cheves FaceTimed the victims, he would often perform sexual acts on camera without their consent and pressure them to do the same.
Although they were later dropped, Cheves was charged with multiple counts of possession of obscene material because he saved the sexual videos he pressured the victims to send.
One of the victims told police that Cheves sexually assaulted her in a classroom before winter break. It's unclear why Cheves was in the same classroom with the victim when he was 18 and she was under 16.
During another incident, Cheves committed statutory sexual battery against one of the victims after they met up at the Oaks Mall. Cheves reportedly made references to the incident over Snapchat messages, but state attorneys didn't pursue sexual battery charges.
In a text message, one of the victims told the other that she felt like Cheves manipulated and took advantage of her.
Cheves will be placed under sex offender probation for three years after his release.
Edited Oct 23: This article is based off two police reports, and it was initially misinterpreted that both reports regarded the same victim, and this page was updated to reflect that Cheves had two victims. It was also reported that Cheves was 18, when he is currently 19 and was 18 when he committed the offenses, as his birthday is in October 2006 and the incidents occurred from December 2024 through February 2025.
