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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
June 2, 2008
FORMER TOPEKA ART TEACHER PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD PORN CHARGES
TOPEKA, KAN. – A former elementary school art teacher with Auburn-Washburn Unified School District 437 pleaded guilty Monday to child pornography charges.
Coen C. Potts, 37, Topeka, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.
In his plea, Potts admitted that investigators found thousands of images of child pornography on a computer in his apartment. He obtained most of the images by joining groups on the Internet for collectors and distributors of child pornography.
According to court records, Potts became the subject of an investigation in September 2006 when investigators learned that he had told a woman he met through a telephone dating service that he would like to have children with her that he could “deflower.” When he met the woman in person, he showed her images of child pornography. He later told her he had been interested in photos of that kind for a long time and he had been “unsuccessful with women virtually my whole life.”
Sentencing is set Sept. 8, 2008. He faces a penalty of not less than five years and not more than 20 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of receiving pornography, and a maximum penalty of 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the possession charge. U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Kenney for their work on the case.
This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, the U.S. Department of Justice's program to protect children from sexual predators.
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