South Carolina teacher pleads guilty to distributing child pornography

A South Carolina school teacher pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to distribute child pornography.

According to court documents, Eric Hartley, 37, of Fort Hill, used various internet applications, including Kik and Dropbox, to send and receive child pornography. One of the individuals with whom Hartley traded child pornography was Jeramy Routh, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute child pornography in May. Routh and Hartley discussed trading exploitative images of children, including infants and toddlers, and did in fact exchange images and videos as well as access to cloud based accounts of child pornography.

Hartley faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of 20 years when sentenced on September 27. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Raymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady accepted the plea. Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Dougherty Russell is prosecuting the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:19-cr-170. Information on Jeramy Routh’s case can be located on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:19-cr-142

This is a press release from ICE.