Detective in old case says he lacked evidence on teacher arrested for child porn

By Frank Fernandez
News-Journal
July 23, 2014

http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20140723/NEWS/140729737/1040?Title=Detective-in-old-case-says-he-lacked-evidence-on-teacher-arrested-for-child-porn

Matthew Graziotti

A retired Edgewater detective said he had a gut feeling but no evidence a decade ago when someone reported seeing Matthew Graziotti engaging in suspicious activity with a child at his home.

So, former Edgewater Detective Dan Blazi said Tuesday he was not surprised when he learned that Graziotti, a teacher at Warner Christian Academy in South Daytona, was arrested July 14 on federal charges of production, distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography.

“All of my instincts told me that I was dealing with a person that had a high potential of committing that, but the problem is you have to prove it,” Blazi said.

Graziotti, 43, has been suspended without pay from Warner Christian, where he was a teacher and director of the summer camp program. Graziotti is being held without bail at the Seminole County Jail and has a hearing set for 10 a.m. today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas B. Smith at the federal courthouse in Orlando.

When the FBI searched Graziotti’s home on Mango Tree Drive in Edgewater, they found a computer with a file folder containing 8,761 images, many depicting sexual abuse and exploitation of prepubescent males, according to a criminal complaint. The FBI also found another computer folder titled “personally known” with 41 subfolders with boys’ names.

Blazi said he retired from the Edgewater Police Department in 2011 and is now running for the District 3 seat on the Edgewater City Council.

The Edgewater Police Department has released a heavily redacted report from May 17, 2004, about a complaint of sex offenses at 2108 Hibiscus Drive, which is the address of Friendship Community Church, then called Friendship Baptist Church, where Graziotti once served as a youth pastor.

But Blazi said the alleged offenses didn’t happen at the church. He said the investigation began after someone saw Graziotti lying down on a couch with a child during a sleepover at his house. Blazi said he could not get into more details about the allegations because police last week reopened the case.

Blazi said he talked to two boys, who were about 8 to 10 years old, as part of the investigation. Blazi said the boys didn’t talk much and slumped down in their chairs.

“My instinct told me these kids are closing up because somebody has coached them to close up as opposed to standard nervousness of a child talking to a police officer,” Blazi said.

There was not enough information to proceed with the case, Blazi said.

“We were unable to gain disclosures from the kids’ interviews to be able to pursue the case any further, but we did whatever we could to address the issue,” Blazi said.

One way it was addressed was by informing Volusia County Schools, Blazi said, because at the time Graziotti was a volunteer mentor at Edgewater Public School. Blazi said that once he talked to the school district, Graziotti was no longer a mentor at the school.

Volusia Schools Superintendent Margaret Smith said in an interview last week that Graziotti was terminated from the district’s day care program in 1999 for presenting religious material to children. She said there was no other record of him working for the school district as an employee or volunteer.

But the school district did some further checking and found that he was indeed a volunteer after questions from The News-Journal, based on Blazi’s recollection.

Graziotti was a volunteer at Edgewater Public School during the 2003-2004 school year, Nancy Wait, director of community information services for Volusia County Schools, wrote in an email on Wednesday.

Wait wrote that “the district is not aware of any report of misconduct by Mr. Graziotti as a volunteer at the school. Mr. Graziotti was later denied from volunteering but existing records do not explain the reason for that decision. However, it should be noted that any allegation of criminal conduct by a volunteer would have been investigated by law enforcement.”

Blazi said he was not aware that Graziotti had taken a job at Warner Christian Academy or that he became an adult volunteer leader with the Boy Scouts of America.

Blazi was aware that Graziotti went on to volunteer at the Edgewater Alliance Church. Graziotti did not work for Edgewater Alliance Church but volunteered to supervise children.

“Of course, I didn’t like it,” Blazi said. “Again, if you don’t really have a case against somebody you are exposing yourself to civil liability by going up to a private entity and saying, by the way, you should not hire this person.”

The school district on Tuesday released personnel records for Graziotti, including a notice of termination which lists Graziotti as a day care worker at Edgewater Public.

According to the notice, Graziotti was hired by the district on March 31, 1999, and terminated on May 21, 1999. The termination action lists “Probationary Employee” in the comments section.

The records also indicate that three months later Graziotti interviewed for a group leader position at the extended day program at Coronado Beach Elementary School in New Smyrna Beach. But he was not hired for that position, and interviewers noted that Graziotti wanted more hours.

Graziotti said he graduated from Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville on his application for Volusia Schools. That was confirmed Tuesday by Trinity Senior Vice President Matthew Beemer, who said Graziotti graduated in 1999 with a bachelor of arts in church ministry with specialization in pastoral and youth ministries. Beemer said that he was not at the college when Graziotti was a student there and did not know of any instructors who were.