{"id":421805,"date":"2026-10-08T01:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/421805\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T01:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:58:09","slug":"wcso-former-santa-claus-arrested-on-numerous-counts-of-possessing-child-sex-abuse-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/421805\/","title":{"rendered":"WCSO: Former Santa Claus arrested on numerous counts of possessing child sex abuse material"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A man who reportedly attended several community events dressed as Santa Claus is now behind bars on numerous child sex abuse charges, according to the Wakulla County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">John Meister Sr. was charged with 16 counts of child pornography, per the sheriff\u2019s office. WCSO Chief Billy Jones said he understands any community concerns, as Meister participated in many civic organizations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A man who reportedly attended several community events dressed as Santa Claus is now behind...\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/J2OOX4QW3VDDLACLLA622BU73U.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>A man who reportedly attended several community events dressed as Santa Claus is now behind bars on numerous child sex abuse charges, according to the Wakulla County Sheriff\u2019s Office.(Wakulla County Sheriff&#8217;s Office)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe recognize the distress this news may cause, particularly for parents and families and community events in the area,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to a sheriff\u2019s office social post in December last year, Meister appears to be honored at Christmas in the Park whilst dressed as Santa Claus. WCSO confirmed to WCTV Wednesday that it was Meister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/10\/08\/wcso-former-santa-claus-arrested-numerous-counts-possessing-child-sex-abuse-material\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A man who reportedly attended several community events dressed as Santa Claus is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233,14151,166485,166484,30097,25150],"class_list":["post-421805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-wakulla-county","tag-wakulla-county-crime","tag-wakulla-county-santa","tag-wakulla-county-sheriffs-office","tag-wcso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}