Parents Question Baxter’s Access to A.K. Suter and Echo Life Church

Public Safety

Parents at A.K. Suter Elementary School and Echo Life Church are asking how much access Matthew Baxter had to their children before the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested him Monday on child sexual abuse material charges.

• Baxter, 47, is a former part-time Pensacola police officer. Many parents assumed he was the school’s full-time school resource officer. The Escambia County School District says he was not.

One parent told WEAR TV that Baxter was a constant presence.

“He was there all the time. I mean his portrait was on the wall and everything else. He’s very pivotal when it came to A.K. Suter.”

The same parent said Baxter also worked security at Echo Life Church, adding, “So he was very involved with the students.”

What the School District Says

Not an SRO. The district says Baxter was not a school resource officer. His role, according to the district, was to protect the school from off-campus threats.

• A message to families. Principal Alicia Mathis sent a recorded phone message to Suter parents. She said the district learned of the arrest of “a former PPD officer who worked security for the school district part-time.” She called the allegations “deeply disturbing” and said the district will continue to work closely with FDLE.

Mathis also addressed the question parents are asking: “At this point, to our knowledge, none of this former officer’s alleged offenses involve any Sutor student,” she said. She encouraged parents to have frank discussions with their children and to contact law enforcement if concerns arise.

What Echo Life Church Says

Pastor responds. The Pensacola News Journal reported that Pastor Joe Driver emailed his congregation. “We understand the concerns that have been raised regarding the arrest of Pensacola Police Officer Matthew Baxter,” the email said. “We want you to know that we share those concerns, and we have been in contact with law enforcement authorities.”

• Echo Life is a popular non-denominational church in a former retail space at Fairfield Drive and Davis Highway. It runs active children and teen ministries.

What FDLE Announced

FDLE Special Agent in Charge Chris Williams and Pensacola Police Chief Eric Winstrom held a press conference Monday afternoon. Baxter had first been arrested about two weeks earlier on drug charges. Agents seized his electronic devices in that case, and forensic analysis turned up the new evidence.

• Four counts of possession of child sexual abuse material
• Thirty counts of sexual activity involving animals
• Four counts of digital voyeurism, tied to images of unknown subjects taken in restrooms
• Two counts of using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony

No earlier suspicion. Asked whether Baxter was a suspect after the first arrest, Williams said, “Not specifically.” Investigators found the files only after reviewing the seized devices in the drug case.

No timeline yet. Williams could not say how far back the material goes. He said there is no indication that other officers were involved and that deeper forensics, including a search for deleted content, are still ahead.

• Schools and churches. Winstrom said Baxter “worked security many times at churches and schools.” Over the past week, he said, PPD leadership has contacted those places. “Fortunately, there’s no evidence indicating that there’s any criminal activities at those places,” the chief said.

PPD Didn’t Follow Its Own Rules

The most troubling answers came when a reporter asked Winstrom about hiring and vetting.

“Again, an individual like this does not put on a badge here.”
Chief Eric Winstrom

A missing record. The chief said that if a polygraph was done, it would have been reviewed by one person. PPD now requires two licensed polygraphers to review every candidate, and a retiree has returned to help.

An incomplete file. Winstrom said Baxter’s personnel file “seemed like there were pieces missing.” He described a lack of integrity in the paperwork process in the early 2000s and again about six or seven years ago, when Baxter was hired.

•  “I’m not saying that something was missed,” Winstrom said. He called the episode “a wake-up call as to how things looked in the past” and said he is confident in the department’s current processes. He did not say whether Baxter ever took the exam.

The Chief Has Seen This Before

Winstrom did not speak about the case as an administrator. He spoke as a former child sex crimes supervisor.

His background. Before coming to Pensacola, Winstrom supervised a child sex team in the city of Chicago for 15 months. He told reporters he left that assignment in part because internet crimes against children were part of the job. He said his wife gave birth to their daughter during the time he left the field because the work was so traumatic.

• “I actually wasn’t able to get through the probable cause affidavit for this, for reading it because the images were so disturbing.”
  Chief Eric Winstrom

His reaction to the evidence. Winstrom said he was “absolutely outraged” that the suspect once wore a Pensacola police badge. He said the probable cause statement included possession of images depicting sexual battery of an infant, which he called “heinous.” He described people who seek out such material as “sexual predators, monsters” who “come from all walks of life.”

The toll on investigators. The chief said an FDLE investigator had to go through hundreds, “maybe thousands,” of images on Baxter’s phone. “I know how this impacts those detectives,” he said. He thanked FDLE for working the case with professionalism and for moving quickly to the arrest.

The victims. Winstrom said survivors have taught law enforcement that the trauma is worsened because they never know when the images will resurface or who will see them. He said the “innocent children” depicted in these images are the victims, and that the harm multiplies with each one. “Anyone who takes any part in this activity is guilty of great evil,” he said.