WASHINGTON — Attorneys for a former Prince George’s County teacher’s aide indicted on federal charges that he sexually exploited children to produce pornography say the evidence against their client should be thrown out.
Attorneys for Deonte Carraway say he has an IQ of 63 and didn’t have the capacity to understand the circumstances when he waived his rights and made his confession, which police say was voluntary.
Carraway’s public defenders filed four motions in defense of the 22-year-old school volunteer. A federal grand jury indicted Carraway in late February.
The former teacher’s aide at Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School is charged with coercing kids between 9 and 12 years old into performing sex acts on him and each other and videotaping them.
Carraway’s defense team also wants to throw out evidence taken from two cellphones. Defense attorneys say police collected the evidence, including videos, photos and chat messages, without a warrant and without probable cause to justify a search.
According to court documents, videos of children taken on those phones serve as the basis for the charges against Carraway. Investigators obtained a search warrant to search one of the phones; Carraway gave them permission to search the other.
Carraway filmed some of the videos at the elementary school — one of multiple locations where he had volunteered or had contact with children.
Carraway also was indicted on multiple child sex offense charges In Prince George’s County.
