COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (WRIC) — A man once employed as a bus driver at a Colonial Heights Elementary School pleaded guilty in federal court to administering a web group dedicated to exchanging child pornography.
Richard Jerod Whitley, Jr., 37, was charged in March with 5 counts of distributing child pornography and 5 counts of receiving child pornography, as part of 128 online groups dedicated to the distribution of child pornography.
The investigation into Whitley began when a Homeland Security officer, undercover in a known child pornography group, saw a user named “James Morgan” upload child sexual abuse material to a group called “Kids Boys.”
Using the phone number associated with “Jason Morgan’s” Viber account — the app used to host the groups — authorities connected the account to Richard Whitley, a resident of Petersburg.
A school resource officer employed by Colonial Heights Public Schools then confirmed to the FBI that Whitley worked as a bus driver at North Elementary School.
When Whitley was arrested by federal agents, he admitted to being “Jason Morgan” and told them he had participated in the chat identified by Homeland Security.
He was also a member of around 128 other Viber groups, with names like “Kids Only 18-,” “CP Ninos Bonitos” and “ONLY LITTLE BOYS.”
According to a statement of facts agreed to by Whitley as part of his guilty plea, he was not only a member of these groups, but an administrator of several of them. Images recovered by federal investigators included images of physical abuse and child sexual abuse material including children as young as infants.
Investigators also searched Whitley’s social media accounts, uncovering extensive conversations he held with students on his bus routes. While the disclosed conversations were not sexually explicit, they did appear to violate the school division‘s guidelines on social media use by employees.
Those guidelines read, in part, “personal communications with students over social media is discouraged and considered outside of official school business” and “do not accept a student as a ‘friend’ on social media, unless the account is specifically related to the curriculum or school-sanctioned activities.”
Some of the messages sent by Whitley to a student, identified only as John Doe, are shown below:
Investigators added that Whitley was known to frequently buy “candy, snacks, Chic-fil-A gift cards” and other gifts for the young children in his care, including on one occasion sending cash to a student for his birthday.
Whitley could face up to 20 years in prison, and will serve no less than 5 years due to mandatory minimum laws.
8News reached out to school officials to inquire whether they were aware of Whitley’s social media contacts with students and whether he was ever disciplined for those activities. We have not yet received a response.
