An Alexandria elementary school teacher has been accused of downloading explicit images of young girls. Federal prosecutors said 35-year-old Justin Coleman, a fourth-grade dual-language teacher at John Adams Elementary School, was arrested and charged with receiving child pornography.
Coleman has taught in the school district since 2005 and has been placed on paid administrative leave, schools spokeswoman Kelly Alexander said.
Investigators interviewed Coleman and searched his Falls Church home on Wednesday. He told them that he has been viewing pornography online for a long time and “downloads what interests him,” according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Alexandria. Coleman said he prefers girls ages 5 to 12, court documents said.
When agents searched his home, they found several pairs of underwear for young girls, according to the complaint. Coleman initially told investigators that he bought the underwear at Target, but later admitted that he stole it from a backpack he found at school.
Prosecutors said Coleman was taken into custody Wednesday evening. His attorney couldn’t be reached Thursday evening.
Alexander said she was not aware of any past complaints about inappropriate conduct by Coleman. She said classes had been dismissed for the day when the district learned of the charges Thursday, but officials were working to notify parents through emails. Parents of students who were assigned to Coleman’s class would be notified by phone, Alexander said.
Authorities began targeting Coleman after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents investigating a child-pornography website identified IP addresses that were used to access image files on the site. The agents traced one of those IP addresses to Coleman’s home, according to the complaint.
The complaint says someone using Coleman’s IP address accessed photos that included naked young girls.
When the agents searched his home, Coleman gave them an external hard drive that he said also contained child pornography. The complaint says investigators found explicit images and videos on the hard drive, as well as fully clothed children who appear to be elementary-school age.
Coleman told the agents that there was a “Justin at home and a Justin at work” and he was afraid “they will mesh together,” the complaint says.
