WASHINGTON — A substitute teacher and basketball coach in Prince George’s County has been arrested on child pornography charges.
Christopher H. Speights, 34, of Capitol Heights, was arrested on Thursday and charged with six counts of possession of child pornography and three counts of distributing child pornography, the Maryland State Police said in a statement.
Police said that Speights worked as a substitute teacher and basketball coach at Bradbury Heights Elementary School for about nine years.
Prince George’s County Public Schools officials sent a letter to Bradbury Heights parents saying that Speights “will no longer serve the school district.”
They added that “We want to assure you that our school system has made significant changes to increase student safety.” The letter also stated that Speights was a basketball coach at the South County Sports Academy.
Speights’ arrest comes three months after former Prince George’s County teacher’s aide Deonte Carraway pleaded guilty to 15 federal child-pornography counts; he faces 270 more state charges.
According to charging documents for Speights, the electronic-storage company Dropbox tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone might have been using the service to store or distribute child pornography involving children as young as five years old. The center informed state police, who obtained a warrant and searched Speights’ residence about 5:30 a.m. Thursday.
The state police said in the statement that Speights admitted that the Dropbox account was his, and that he had uploaded the child pornography to it. Police found several devices in the residence that they said had child pornography stored on them. Additional charges are pending.
The police and the school system both said that if anyone has information about Speights, or is concerned about contact that their child may have had with him, they should call the state police at 410-953-8272.
