A Covington resident and former Barrow County middle school teacher, William Kimbrell, was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury on child pornography charges the day after resigning, the Unites States Attorney's office announced in a release Monday.
Kimbrell, a technology teacher at Westside Middle, has now been arraigned on federal charges of accessing with intent to view child pornography. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 18, the day after his resignation. On March 19, the Barrow County Board of Education approved his resignation during a called meeting.
"This now-former middle school teacher has been indicted child pornography charges," said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. "Through the vigilance of our law enforcement partners, this defendant is no longer teaching, and will face the consequences of his actions."
Westside Middle administrators were first made aware that law enforcement was investigating Kimbrell on March 13, according to Barrow Superintendent Dr. Wanda Creel in a release.
"The superintendent and Executive Director of Human Resources were notified immediately," she said. "Mr. Kimbrell was placed on administrative leave the morning of Friday, March 14."
Kimbrell resigned from his position on March 17. The same day Creel said the district filed a report with the Professional Standards Commission.
"The school and district have cooperated with law enforcement in regards to this matter," Creel said in the release.
Kimbrell worked in the district for one year and eight months as a connections technology teacher at the middle school.
According to United States Attorney Yates, starting in October 2012, a sheriff's office detective in southern Georgia found that a person at an apartment complex in Statesboro was distributing child pornography. In late December 2012 and continuing into January 2013, this same person was still offering child pornography for distribution, but this time the computer's Internet protocol address came back to a residence in Covington.
When special agents with Homeland Security Investigations learned of the offense this year, according to the release, they identified the subject as William Kimbrell, and obtained federal search warrants for his home in Covington while he was employed at Westside.
When the agents executed the search warrants, they found that Kimbrell had deleted the bulk of the child pornography on his computer, according to the release. The computer forensics analyst, however, was able to find remnants of files on the computer and was able to determine that Kimbrell had accessed child pornography on the Internet from October to December 2013, which includes the period that he was working as a teacher.
"Consumers of child pornography create a demand for the sexual exploitation of children that has resulted in an explosion of abuse across the United States," said Special Agent in Charge Brock D. Nicholson of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Atlanta. "No matter how cleverly a suspect may think he has covered his tracks by deleting or encrypting illegal photos and videos, our special agents and computer forensic analysts are highly trained and skilled at finding the evidence of their crimes."
He was arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge Russell G. Vineyard.
This case is being investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Paul R. Jones is prosecuting the case.
This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the Attorney General launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney's Offices around the country, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit projectsafechildhood.gov.
