An Army Reserve master sergeant was arrested twice this month by Florida sheriffs for having inappropriate relationships with high school students while working as a substitute teacher.
Two different Florida county sheriff offices charged and arrested Army Reserve Master Sgt. Joseph Antoine Prevatte for sending inappropriate messages to high school students and in one case, having a sexual relationship with one of them.
Prevatte, 39, an intelligence non-commissioned officer, has been assigned to a Reserve detachment with Special Operations Command since March 14, 2022. Prevatte has served with the Army Reserve since 2007 and was on active duty between June 2003 and 2007.
“The Army Reserve is aware of the incident and will continue to closely monitor the situation. We take matters such as this seriously, and our primary concern is ensuring that all legal and appropriate actions are taken in accordance with our commitment to upholding the highest standards of conduct among our soldiers and civilian personnel,” John Bradley, a spokesperson for the Army Reserve Command told Task & Purpose in an email.
Between Oct. 1 and 3, while working as a substitute teacher, Prevatte allegedly sent inappropriate messages and “engaged in sexual interactions” with a student at Lennard High School in Ruskin, Florida — 30 miles south of Tampa, Florida.
He was arrested by the Hillsborough County Sheriff in Tampa and charged with a count of lewd or lascivious battery which is defined in Florida as engaging in sexual activity with a person who is between 12 and 16 years old, and another count of harmful explicit communication to a minor, according to a release by the sheriff’s office.
According to the county’s inmate search, Prevatte was arrested Nov. 18 and is currently in the Falkenburg Road Jail in Tampa.
During the Hillsborough sheriff’s investigation, detectives also learned about similar allegations against Prevatte while he was working as a substitute teacher at another school in Manatee County, nearly 50 miles south of Hillsborough County where the most recent allegations emerged.
On Oct. 31, the Manatee sheriff received a tip from school officials alleging that a substitute teacher was sending inappropriate messages to a student. According to the sheriff’s office, the school board “immediately prevented” Prevatte from teaching jobs in the district while awaiting the investigation’s outcome. Manatee sheriff detectives found that Prevatte messaged back and forth with the high school student for a few weeks, even sending a named image of himself “but cropped to exclude his genitalia.”
Manatee officials charged Prevatte with one count of soliciting or engaging in lewd conduct with a student and arrested him on Nov. 8, the sheriff’s office said in a release. He was booked in the Manatee County Jail on Nov. 12 and released the next day after posting a $75,000 bond.
“The actions of this man are despicable. I am proud of the diligent work of our detectives, who followed every lead to bring this individual to justice,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in the release. “As a father, I can’t imagine the concerns this news brings. Please rest assured that team HCSO will do everything possible to hold accountable those who prey on our children.”
The Hillsborough sheriff’s office directed anyone who may be a victim of Prevatte to contact them.
Prevatte’s unit, detachment 20, provides deployable Reserve soldiers to USSOCOM to meet the command’s peacetime, contingency, and wartime requirements. The Army Reserve element is made up of Troop Program Units soldiers or those with “TPU status” who have orders for weekend duty once a month and a two-week annual training requirement.
Reserve officials said that Prevatte was not on duty when the alleged Florida incidents took place.
Prevatte previously deployed to the Middle East for a week (described in his service record as Kuwait-Qatar-Jordan-Oman) in October 2022 and to Afghanistan for more than eight months between November 2013 and July 2014.
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