Middle school teacher arrested on child pornography charges
By a Biometrica staffer
A middle school teacher from Fontana, California, was arrested on child pornography charges by special agents with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Josue Gamaliel Vidal Quintanilla, 28, who teaches mathematics at Shandin Hills Middle School in San Bernardino, was charged for allegedly uploading explicit images to the internet. He was arrested on Wednesday after he admitted using various online platforms to send, receive and possess child pornography.
Evidence obtained by HSI agents and officers with the Fontana Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force indicates that Vidal used Kik Messenger and Snapchat for the past year to transmit child pornography.
He also posed as a minor boy on the internet and solicited “many” minors – some as young as 10 years old, according to the affidavit in support of the complaint. He solicited them to engage in sexually explicit behavior in online meetings, which took place as recently as Tuesday night.
“A preliminary search of Vidal’s Toshiba laptop revealed approximately 20 image files depicting the sexual exploitation of children, as well as multiple video files with titles indicative of child pornography,” according to the affidavit by an HSI special agent.
Vidal has been charged with one count of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. If convicted of both, he faces a statutory maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison. Additionally, the transportation count carries a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in federal prison.