State Attorney Declines to File Charges Against Jacob Ross
SATELLITE BEACH, Fla. — Florida’s 18th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office has opted not to file criminal charges against Jacob Daniel Ross, the Brevard County man arrested on allegations that included sexual battery of a child and related offenses. A February 17 letter from the State Attorney’s Office outlined the rationale behind the decision.
Why Charges Were Not Filed
In the no-file letter, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Choisser wrote that although there may have been sufficient evidence for probable cause to arrest Ross, prosecutors did not believe they had a “reasonable likelihood of success at trial.” The letter cited an absence of DNA or other forensic evidence and noted there were no eyewitnesses able to sufficiently corroborate the child victim’s account. The defendant denied the allegations. The matter was referred to the Department of Children and Families for separate investigation and intervention.
A no-file decision is not a verdict of innocence. It reflects a prosecutorial determination that the state lacked sufficient corroboration to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt — not that the underlying allegations were found to be false.
What the Arrest Affidavit Alleged
According to a Brevard County Sheriff’s Office arrest-warrant affidavit, the investigation began when a teen reported sexual abuse allegations involving a family member with whom she shared a household. The affidavit alleges the reported physical abuse began when the child was nine years old and continued into her teen years.
The affidavit also documented what investigators described as corroborating circumstances, including a surreptitious recording in which investigators described a conversation in which Ross allegedly offered the victim $1,000 for sexual conduct. Additionally, the teen reported seeing what appeared to be a camera application on Ross’s phone and an image consistent with a live or recorded feed from inside the home, and reported discovering photographs of herself asleep in her underwear on the suspect’s Snapchat account.
Context and Editorial Note
Ross has not been convicted of any charges. The State Attorney’s letter characterizes the decision as one based on the difficulty of proving the case at trial, not as a finding that the allegations were fabricated. The identity of the juvenile victim is being protected.