A Holdenville Public School employee, now identified as Cody Richison, a teacher at Holdenville High School, was arrested by the FBI this week on charges related to child pornography according to News 4. The FBI's involvement came to light after investigators found incriminating evidence on a cell phone belonging to another individual, Joseph Sampson, looked into for similar crimes.
The arrest on the school campus took community members and district officials by surprise with the Holdenville Public Schools' superintendent telling News 4, “It was a shock”; explaining that the FBI did not notify him, or local authorities about the ongoing investigation prior to showing up at the high school for the arrest, despite claiming assurance of student safety being unaffected as reported by OKC Fox News.
Richison, 34, was charged with Receipt of Child Pornography following an investigation that had reportedly begun back in August, this critical information surfaced through a federal arrest affidavit reported by News 4. The Holdenville Public Schools confirmed the individual in question will remain off school grounds throughout the investigation, according to initial a statement obtained by OKC Fox News.
A resident of Holdenville, Betty Wilson, expressed her concern stating, “It’s alarming in your school system where your babies are going to school and being educated," a sentiment captured by KOCO News, while the district attorney for Hughes, Pontotoc, and Seminole counties, Erik Johnson, shared that he only became aware of the case after the arrest had taken place; the case which is set to be handled by the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Oklahoma in Muskogee, with this information also provided by KOCO News.
