By Mike Genet
mike.genet@examiner.net
An Independence School District elementary teacher just hired this year faces federal charges for child pornography after investigators received tips Tuesday.
Dennis Hernandez, 28, was arrested at his home early Wednesday, before what would have been his third day teaching at Fairmount Elementary. The district said there is no current evidence that links ISD students to the allegations.
Hernandez was charged Thursday in federal court in Kansas City with transportation of child pornography, production and attempted production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
Hernandez had been a substitute teacher and paraprofessional in the North Kansas City School District before he was hired by ISD, according to the affidavit, and the uploaded files appeared to have been created during Hernandez’s time as a substitute in that school district or at Camp Takajo, a children’s summer camp in Maine.
According to a federal affidavit, a Kansas City police officer assigned to an FBI task force said the FBI received 19 cybertips Tuesday of files of apparent child sexual abuse material uploaded to Google photos Monday by an account that traced to Hernendez.
A school police officer confirmed Hernandez was a teacher at Fairmount Elementary in Independence. Based on those tips, agents got a federal search warrant for Hernandez’s home, and they arrested him shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Hernandez has been placed on administrative leave, the Independence School District said Wednesday.
In another release Thursday, ISD said it is “deeply disturbed” by the charges and that “crimes of this nature are abhorrent and stand in direct opposition to everything we value as a district.” The district said it conducts fingerprint-based background checks for all employees, which include a review of criminal records from both the Missouri State Highway Patrol and FBI.
Hernandez had no prior criminal charges, so his name would not have come up on such a background check.
If convicted on just the transportation of child pornography charge, he faces at least five years in federal prison. Other charges carry sentences of 15 to 30 years.
