Okay. Uh, good afternoon. I'm Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and we're here this afternoon to announce [clears throat] the arrest of John Ballard, who's a white male, whose date of birth is 10/7/1974. He lives at 13045 Farmington Trail in Seminole. And this is really a very difficult case because >> [clears throat] >> it involves the betrayal of the trust that the child welfare system puts into people who volunteer to help the most vulnerable among us. And those are children who have been abused, abandoned, and neglected. I want to be extremely clear as we begin here today that there are great people doing tremendous work in the child welfare system, whether it's foster parents, guardians ad litem, volunteer caseworkers for agencies, child protection investigators, courts, and so many more. These people are doing all they can to protect, care for, and raise other people's children because those people can't or don't care for their children themselves and raise those kids as they should be doing. These kids in the child welfare system range from infants to teenagers. There are way too many parentless kids who, without the tremendous people who make up the child welfare system, would be in very dire situations. But, when people agree to be caregivers, they can't betray the trust placed in them and use their role as a playground to fulfill their perverse sexual pleasures. And that's what happened here. John Ballard used his position of trust as a foster parent and an adoptive parent to young boys as part of his personal sexual gratification. Ballard and his husband, Bradley Borsuk, were foster parents to about 23 different young boys and adoptive parents to five young men. Here's what led to the arrest of John Ballard today on child pornography and animal bestiality charges. On May 12th, 2026, we received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a person was communicating on an app called Kik and disclosing through communications with others that he was sexually abusing his 7-year-old son. The person doing that communication was identified as John Boward who's on the board next to us and that's who we arrested today. Kik has been identified in numerous investigations as a platform where child sex offenders exchange child pornography and share their sexual escapades. Boward communicated via Kik with three separate people on three separate occasions in late May, I'm sorry, late April and early May of this year. And in each of these conversations, Boward described to the other people the sex acts that he was engaged in with his son and other young children. Boward's statements about his son and other children are explicit and they're very graphic. Boward made one statement about his son that, and I quote, "I love feeling him in my mouth." Close quote. That was one of the more tame statements. Some of the statements by Boward about what he had done and wanted to do to children in his care are so graphic that I would never publicly disclose them. And in the simplest terms, they're gross. Some of the statements involve sodomy of baby boys under 1-year-old. I've included some of the, I'll call it less gross statements on the board to my right here. And you can see by some of these statements, if you come up after, if you can't read them, you can see and have the context of what he was saying. We learned that Boward accessed his Kik account from his cell phone at his residence and a hair salon that he owns, which is called Always Gossip Salon, located at 10525 Park Boulevard in Seminole. Through the investigation, we learned that John Ballard and his husband, Bradley Borsic, were foster parents licensed by the state. And again, between 2017 and 2023, they fostered seven, I'm sorry, 23 different boys in their home. Ballard and Borsic Borsic also adopted five boys between 2015 and 2023. There are currently four boys living in their home. One of the adopted boys, who's now an adult, lives out of state. The foster children and the adopted children all range in age from 4 to 12 while they were living with Ballard and Borsic. Some of the boys were 7 years old, as indicated by Ballard by Ballard in the Kik conversations. Ballard and Borsic has been very active uh and prominent in the foster family community. And in 2024, they were featured in a local media story for adoption day in court. And that's a board that reflects reflects the story. It was on Bay News 9, and there's a lot of comments uh that Ballard made regarding what he was doing in the child welfare welfare system that are depicted in that story. Ballard and Borsic also authored a book for adoptive parents that's titled Our Journey, which the cover of the book is here on the board to my right. One thing that's really maddening about the situation is the fraud that Ballard committed on others by holding himself out as this model foster and adoptive parent. By it well, by his own statements, he was using these kids for his sexual pleasure. Once we saw these chats, detectives served a search warrant to seize Ballard's phone, and that occurred on June 3rd. At the time we served the warrant, Ballard was Ballard admitted that he was engaging in these sexual discussions involving his sons and other children, but claimed that he was doing so quote because it was safer for him to do it than other people. It was obvious that Ballard's statements made no sense, that he was lying and just making up nonsense. When detectives made a preliminary determination that there were videos on Ballard's phone of people having sex with animals, he stated and I quote, "I'm into some really weird stuff." Close quote. After seizing Ballard's phone, we conducted a forensic analysis and determined that Ballard was accessing sites to download and view very graphic child pornography. We also verified the bestiality pornography involving people having sex with animals on his phone. Dozens of images of child pornography involving children as young as 2 months old were found on Ballard's phone. One video was of a male adult placing his penis in the mouth of a baby who appeared to be less than 6 months old. While watching the child pornography on his phone, Ballard was engaged in graphic discussions with other men about actually engaging in sexual acts with children. Ballard's comments about what he had done or wanted to do to young boys while watching the videos was even more graphic and disgusting than the comments on the board next to me. We arrested Ballard this morning and charged him with 20 counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of possession of sexual activity involving animals. We've interviewed most all of the adoptive and foster children. Some of Ballard's foster children described some concerning behavior that is still under investigation. According to some of the boys, Ballard punished them by making them strip naked and stand in front of a window facing the street, and Ballard often watched the boys when they showered or took baths. These kids are all very young and it is very difficult for them to disclose sexual abuse, especially for boys. As of this time, we have not established probable cause to charge Ballard with any additional crimes, but the investigation is ongoing. Ballard's husband, Bradley Borsack, has not been arrested. The Department of Children and Families is conducting a parallel child welfare investigation, and they will determine what will be done with the four adopted children who are still living in the home. Again, our investigation is ongoing. So, I'll take any questions that you all have, if you have anything. >> Sheriff, what can you say about this app, Kik? It often it seems like a lot of cases are involved around there, and you know, we've seen like the Attorney General going after TikTok and things of that matter. So, how can we put some force on Kik? >> You know, it it these apps that are out there, it it actually how do I say this? As they go, okay, at least Kik is reporting what is occurring on their app to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and we're able to initiate these investigations. There are some, and there are and I'm not going to disclose it here, because I don't want to give anybody the avenue. One of the apps that he was using is actually based in Europe, and they won't cooperate with US law enforcement. They're complete anonymizer and facilitator for people engaged in this, and some of the worst stuff we hear we saw here was off of that. So, you know, Kik is a problem. There's no question that it's a problem. People use it, and they use it for these horrific purposes. But, I don't know that there's you know, a lot. I know the Attorney General is looking into options as to what can be done, but at least they do report it. So, I I you know, give them that, I guess. >> And what about any any layers of protection that, you know, maybe you you think as law enforcement, the child welfare system needs to incorporate? >> Well, you know, as I said, you know, the child welfare system and the people who work in the child welfare system are really doing I'll call it God's work, okay? They're there to protect these kids. They do a great job. These guys didn't have any criminal history and what really just irks me to no end is them standing there in a courtroom with a judge and with the kids and holding themselves out to be or him holding himself out to be this caregiver and and this you know you know all to the kids and if you go into that article and read it and you read some of his statements in there is is that and that's why I say it's a fraud because while he's holding himself out in that capacity in that way he is by his own statements engaging in all this inappropriate to say the least contact and he's downloading child pornography of these young kids and and the comments and statements he's making about kids that are probably a couple months old and what he wants to do to them is just is gross. So, you know, there's there's sometimes no matter what you do and how you try you're not going to uncover this at the moment. So, the child welfare system and the workers and the people in that system are doing all they can. There's no fault here on the system for what these people are doing. This is his fault for what he was doing and he's responsible for it and you know, they can go through licensing and screening and but behind the scenes you don't know what's going on. You don't know what these people are doing. So, um this is just a a thing that happens and these people are this guy is really just a one-off as far as I know. I haven't seen anything like this before as far as the child child welfare system goes and the people who are in it. I really believe that the people who are in the system work in the system, the caregivers are doing the right thing by the kids. >> Sheriff, when you mentioned the Valor's husband that you named him, so is there any particular reason why he like do do you know if he was present when all of this was happening? >> He was around at the home. I mean, I I you know, I named him because he's here and because they hold themselves out and Ballard and Borsuk are holding themselves out. They wrote this book. They're together. They're you know, they're married. You know, again, we haven't established any probable cause as far as Borsuk is concerned, but the investigation's ongoing. You know, the the things [clears throat] that these boys said that was happening that is I would characterize it as criminal home is concerning behavior within the home. There's something that is still under investigation and what Ballard said he was doing to these boys, you know, I I don't know at this point. But you know, they they both you know, they authored a book on this. They appeared at these events. They had 23 young boys fosters in their home along with the five adoptive boys over a long period of time. >> And can you go over the amount of years that they were fostering and having these adopted kids in their home? >> Well, they they really started they started in 2015. They became licensed in 2017 and they still have the adopted still have four adopted kids in the home today. So, it's been going on since at least 11 years, 2015. >> Are there still children staying in that home? >> That's up to the Department of Children and Families. That's not our decision. They're they're conducting their investigation you know, into that aspect of it. >> Did they start their investigation parallel to yours in May or did they first get informed about this today? >> So, no, they've been no, they've been aware of it. They they were informed of it and of course they were informed today of the arrest. >> Um 23 different young boys. How many of them shared do you think he victimized? >> It's hard to tell, you know, I don't know because like I said, you know, these kids and when they're very young like this and some Some them were at at an age at the time. Again, this has been going on for 11 years and some of them may not even remember it because the youngest in the home was 4 years old. And you got a guy that's talking about wanting to do bad things not to 4-year-olds, not to 3-year-olds, not to 2, but to you know and in the comments he made how he likes kids that are and come up and read these things. How he likes kids that are zeros. And he likes having being able to communicate with other people who like zeros. What zeros mean is kids that are 3, 4, 5, 6 months old. So, he's in the home with 4-year-olds. If we're asking somebody who was 4 or 5 at the time and and that was 10 years ago, we're asking them to These kids wouldn't even remember that. >> Do you believe that this was his intention all along in becoming a foster parent and a father? >> I have no way of knowing that. I I don't know. That would be I can't speculate on that. All I can tell you is is what happened and what we have and what the evidence shows. And the evidence is his statement. So, here you got a guy, too, that gets confronted by the cops with a search warrant for his phone for child pornography, etc. And in the parking lot when they're taking his phone, they do a preliminary look at it before it's forensically analyzed and they see that there is bestiality, sex people having sex with animals on the phone and he says, "Oh yeah, I'm into really weird stuff." Well, no kidding. You know, so I mean this is you know what was any of this by design, what he did, how you know, I don't know. I can't answer that, but all I can tell you is is that what he what he actually did by his own words and what we found on his phone is consistent with him saying what he did and we'll continue to investigate it. >> Can you talk a little bit about what the path forward is for these kids who are beyond the ones who are still with it, who are in the house? I mean, is there is the government going to be helping them in terms of counseling or kind of where do things go from there? >> You know, so like I said, you know, you know, right now none of these kids have made disclosures. And so, you know, we don't have a lot to work with in that regard. Some of the kids are still in the system. And and again, when you're in the foster care system, sometimes these kids move around quite a bit from foster home to foster home. So, you know, you know, we'll make sure that everybody's aware of it. They can keep an eye on them. But right now we don't have any disclosures by these kids. >> Sheriff, certain predator files are now eligible for the death penalty. Is that something you would like the prosecutor's office to see? >> Well, and again, in this case we don't have that, okay? But under certain circumstances, yeah, yeah, and I think that one of the things that is extremely helpful, beneficial, is the law that the legislature passed this session, the governor signed into law, and takes effect on July 1st in about a week, and it creates a minimum mandatory sentence in prison and very stiff penalties and upgraded penalties for these people that are engaged in this type of conduct. So, you know, you know, the the stats show that this is a worsening situation. The number of tips that we've received from this point in time this year compared to last year is up about 73%. So, you know, that's the tips that's those are just the tips we get from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, from NCMEC as it's called. So, the number of tips is is up exponentially. It's up 70-plus percent. And on top of that, the number of investigations that we conduct based upon what we see, what we find, that don't come through NCMEC. So, this problem is, maybe sometimes the phrase gets used, but it it applies here. It's off the charts. And it is not getting any better. It's getting worse. And I wholeheartedly 100% not only welcome, but I'm so glad that the legislature acted this year and increased the penalties with these minimum mandatories and hopefully will one adequately punish these people and be a deterrent. But these people are sick. There's no way you can't you can say that somebody that is talking this way this guy was talking and doing what he was doing isn't sick. Doesn't mean he's not responsible for his actions, but it's awful. >> Do you need state and federal help, too, because this is an international problem where people are using apps that as you said you don't really have control over? >> And it's all over the country. It isn't just here. It's all over the place. So, yeah, it's it's something you know, there are federal laws on the books. Most of these cases most of them are investigated at state level and prosecuted at the state level and but it's a problem all across the board. >> Is there anything else that you would like to see happen to continue to address this problem to hopefully tamp down? >> You know, I don't know what else to do with it because this isn't the kind of thing, you know, when you have a burglaries you can put deputies out in the neighborhoods and you can do extra patrols and you can have heavy presence. This stuff is all going behind the scenes. This is stuff people are doing on their computers, their tablets, their phones. This is stuff that you you how do you deter this other than what we're doing here today and what the legislature has done by to create some very significant penalties and put people in prison for minimum mandatory sentences and try and deter it that way. That's one of the things probably most frustrating to me because, you know, we like to be able to fix problems. We like to be able to solve things. I don't know how to fix this or solve it other than do what we do, which is to be very robust in our investigations, uh do as many as we can, put as many of these people in prison, and and hope that, you know, we keep those people off the street and that they're not doing this type of thing anymore, and that it deters others from doing it, and that they get help so that they don't talk about and and do uh these things that he says he was doing to these kids. Uh it's just and that viewing the child pornography, I mean, that all of it. So, I it's about all we can do is just to be very diligent, very thorough, very robust in our investigations, put a lot of resources on it, and hold these people accountable. >> Just to clarify that inaccurate reporting, do you believe that or do you have any evidence either from statements forensically that, besides the statement that he made on Kik, to others that he had, you know, physically touched and abused his sons? Do you have any, you know, further evidence of that? >> Well, I Well, so it isn't just the the the statements on Kik, the original statements, it's also the subsequent statements that he was making on the other app while he's watching the video, communicating with others who are watching the video, I'll call it simultaneously, about what he had done and what he wanted to do, and also some of these behaviors that are indicative of it, and some of the boys have said, and I think it is indicative of it, that he was stripping them naked as punishment, making them stand in front of a window as exhibitionist, that he was watching them shower, watching them bathe, and those types of behaviors. So, those things are indicative and consistent with what's on here. >> Yeah, I'm just trying to make sure I got >> No, no, it's it's fair. It's It's fair question. Because we want to make we want to be right. We want to be very accurate about this and very factual about it. And the last thing I want to do is uh insinuate that there's something, you know, you know, other than what the facts show. So, no, it's a fair question and I I think that there is enough here that corroborates what he said and came out of his mouth. And I would say another thing that came out of his mouth to our detectives is what he said at the hair salon when we seized the phone when he was questioned about the bestiality and he said, "I'm into some weird stuff." I mean, those are So, there's a lot there that I I think corroborates it. All right, thanks everybody. Appreciate it.