Matthew Miller and Samuel Ekkawi
Introduction
Matthew Miller, 32, and Samuel Ekkawi, 36 — both of Jacksonville, Florida — were arrested together in the Polk County Sheriff’s Office’s October 2026 sting, the largest in county history, after authorities say they arranged to meet someone they believed was a 13-year-old boy. Per the roster, the two told detectives they were vacationing together in Orlando, and the sheriff’s office gave each man his own label: “VACATION IN ORLANDO” for Miller and “HIV POSITIVE” for Ekkawi. This page covers both men because they are co-defendants in one account, and what follows are allegations from the sheriff’s office, unproven as of this writing.
Background Information
WKMG’s roster lists their entries back to back: “VACATION IN ORLANDO — Matthew Miller, 32, of Jacksonville,” followed by “HIV POSITIVE — Samuel Ekkawi, 36, of Jacksonville.” The arrests came out of “Polk Around and Find Out II,” the seven-day, multi-agency operation Judd announced on October 30, 2026, in which undercover detectives posed online as children or as their guardians; News 6 obtained the predator list and its charges from the sheriff’s office. The Post described the same week as netting nearly 300 arrests, child predators and human traffickers among them.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not convicted. Miller and Ekkawi were arrested together in the sting and charged with felonies including traveling to meet a minor and attempted lewd/lascivious battery on a minor. The allegations below come from Polk County Sheriff’s Office statements, and nothing has been adjudicated — both are presumed innocent.
Miller’s entry, per the roster: he communicated online with an undercover detective posing as the guardian of a 13-year-old boy and sent sexually explicit messages about what he wanted to do with the boy. The account then pulls in his co-defendant — he and Samuel Ekkawi video-chatted with the undercover detective, deputies write, making the two men’s joint participation explicit at the conversation stage.
The entries converge on the same ending: both suspects showed up near the undercover location and were taken into custody. Their explanation to detectives, per WKMG, was that they were vacationing together in Orlando — the detail the roster turned into Miller’s label. Ekkawi’s own account adds one more fact: upon his arrest, he disclosed that he is HIV positive. That disclosure is reported here as the sheriff’s office recorded it, and the count attached to it is a charge to be answered in court, not a finding of any kind.
The sheriff’s office lists seven counts for Miller: traveling to meet a minor, use of computer to solicit guardian, use of two-way communication device to commit a felony, attempted lewd/lascivious battery on a minor, possession of meth, possession with intent to inhale harmful chemicals, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Ekkawi’s list runs five: traveling to meet a minor, use of computer to solicit guardian, use of two-way communication device to commit a felony, attempted lewd/lascivious battery on a minor, and attempted HIV-infected person having sex with uninformed person. The two lists overlap on the four child-related counts and diverge after that — drug counts for Miller, the HIV-related count for Ekkawi.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The week’s arithmetic, per WKMG: 281 arrests, with Judd calling it the single largest undercover operation his office had ever run. The Post’s account emphasized the breadth — child predators and human traffickers picked up alongside the prostitution majority — and recorded the sheriff’s rationale: “The focus here is to go out into the underworld and look for those who want to prey upon our folks.” Eleven people screened as trafficking victims after their arrests were offered services. Their joint arrest gave the roster one of its few two-person narratives, which is how WKMG chose to frame the pair for readers; neither report quotes anyone about the two Jacksonville men specifically.
Current Status
Both men were taken into custody during the operation, and each faces his own count list as printed above. The cited reports go no further: there is no arraignment information, no plea from either man, no court dates, and nothing adjudicated as of the October 30, 2026 announcements. Any development since would fall outside the record these two reports captured. Each is presumed innocent — separately and individually — and neither man’s legal status changes until a court says so.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Neither man’s employment appears in the cited reports — no employer is named for Miller or for Ekkawi, in contrast to the theme-park workers whose jobs dominate the roster’s most-read entries. What is on the record is personal rather than professional: a shared vacation that ended in a joint arrest, seven and five felony counts respectively, and, for Ekkawi, a medical disclosure the sheriff’s office publicized alongside his charges. The cited reports record nothing further about either man’s life or work.