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Press Release

Former Teacher Sentenced To Five Years In Prison For Receipt Of Child Pornography-Exchanged Sexually Explicit Images With Student-

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Columbia

     WASHINGTON – John Solano, 30, a former teacher from Washington, D.C., was sentenced on Oct. 7, 2013 to five years in prison for receiving child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

     Solano pled guilty in July 2013 to receipt of pornography. He was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Honorable Rosemary M. Collyer. Solano has been incarcerated since his arrest on March 8, 2013. Upon completion of his prison term, Solano will be placed on 10 years of supervised release. He also will be required to register as a sex offender for a period of 15 years.

     According to the government's evidence, Solano, who was then a teacher at McKinley Tech High School in Northeast Washington, engaged in inappropriate sexual communications with several current and former students. Specifically, in December 2012, Solano engaged in inappropriate and sexually explicit text message communications with a 16-year-old student. During the course of that correspondence, at Solano’s request, the student sent and Solano received images of child pornography.

     This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI's Washington Field Office and MPD.  In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.  Led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

     In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, Assistant Director Parlave and Chief Lanier praised the work of the MPD Detectives and Special Agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. They also commended the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorney Ari Redbord, who prosecuted the case.

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Updated February 19, 2015