Elementary School Assistant Principal Indicted on Child Pornography Charges

ALEXANDRIA, VA—An assistant principal at Greenville Elementary School, Joshua Myers, 29, of Warrenton, Va., was indicted yesterday on two counts of distributing child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement after the return of the indictment was made public.

According to court documents, Myers was identified through an undercover investigation of individuals using peer-to-peer file-sharing software to view and trade child pornography. Through an online chat with an undercover agent, Myers allegedly provided his password to folders on his computer containing child pornography and discussed his sexual interest in minor boys. Using the password provided, the undercover officer allegedly obtained through Myer’s shared folder several videos containing child pornography, including a video of a minor boy who appears to have been raped by an adult male and a woman sexually abusing a toddler.

Myers was arrested on June 15, 2011, at his home following a search of his residence. According to court documents, Myers allegedly admitted to being the specific user on the peer-to-peer network, admitted to trading child pornography with various users, and indicated he had child pornography stored on a thumb drive and on his work-issued laptop at school. Subsequent forensic analysis of the evidence seized revealed that he was allegedly distributing and receiving child pornography.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation Task Force, with assistance from the Warrenton Police Department and the Northern Virginia/District of Columbia Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and cooperation from Fauquier County Public Schools. Special Assistant United States Attorney Maureen C. Cain is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

Indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.