A former director of technology for South St. Paul Public Schools, Paul Brashear, entered a guilty plea to a child pornography charge, according to CBS News Minnesota. Brashear, 63, was handed a three-year prison sentence, to be followed by four years of probation; nine additional counts of child pornography possession were dismissed by the court.
The investigation into Brashear began when Microsoft tipped off authorities over a suspected image of child pornography, as outlined in the criminal complaint. Early in March, police executed a search at Brashear's residence and seized a flash drive that contained hundreds of images of suspected child pornography. Brashear later admitted in an interview that he had viewed child pornography, an act that has now quickly come to define his public legacy.
In a detailed report by KSTP, during the search on March 10, Brashear allegedly told police he might have come across pornographic images accidentally in his web browser but had not intentionally uploaded any such material. The statement of probable cause revealed that investigators discovered a folder on the flash drive, which Brashear acknowledged owning, containing images of children ranging in age from toddlers to pubescent youth.
Prior to his guilty plea, Brashear was charged with possessing an image of a "prepubescent minor" engaged in sexual behavior. Further analysis of nearly 600 files on the flash drive proved to contain 18 that were recognized as child abuse material and 95 other images deemed pertinent. His wife had previously twice caught him looking at child pornography and confronted him about it. Brashear was placed on administrative leave by the school district on March 13 and, by the following day, had offered his resignation.
The South St. Paul Public Schools were swift to state that there appears to be no involvement of district students in the case and that they have cut Brashear off from all district technology systems. They assured that the district's former Director of Technology did not have direct or routine interaction with students. If Brashear had been convicted on all charges, he would have faced a maximum of 25 years in prison, pursuant to the penalties for such egregious crimes.
