Former South St. Paul school district employee charged with possession of child pornography

A Hudson, Wis. man formerly employed by the South St. Paul school district has been charged with one count of child pornography possession, court documents show.

According to a statement of probable cause, investigators received information from a cyber tip line on March 6 that an image described as a “prepubescent minor” engaged in sexual behavior was possessed by 63-year-old Paul Brashear.

The document goes on to say Brashear was listed as being the school district’s director of technology.

At around 8:40 a.m. on March 10, investigators searched Brashear’s home, where he told authorities he didn’t have to save images for his job, and added if police found a pornographic image, it would have likely been on a temporary browser and wasn’t intentionally uploaded anywhere.

The document goes on to say Brashear told police he had browsed for pornography previously and found things “he didn’t want to see,” and also confirmed he had come across images and videos that obviously included children.

Eventually, Brashear admitted to storing child pornography on a flash drive but said there wasn’t anything on his work computer or stored on his computer that he knew of.

In addition, the document states Brashear’s wife had caught him looking at child pornography years ago and twice confronted him about it.

Investigators then analyzed images found on the flash drive Brashear said was his and, of the nearly 600 files checked for child-sensitive abuse material, more than 200 were labeled as child exploitation material that is age difficult or deemed as non-child abuse material, 18 were found as child abuse material and 95 other images were labeled as being pertinent, the document says.

When investigators opened a folder to view the images, they found images of suspected child pornography involving kids ranging in age from pubescent to toddlers.

Online court records show Brashear has a status conference scheduled for Wednesday morning, a settlement conference on April 19 and a pre-trial/scheduling conference on May 11.

Records also show a $5,000 cash bond was set on March 13 and was posted on March 14.

South St. Paul Public Schools announced on March 13 that Brashear had been arrested on probable cause for child pornography possession and said he had been placed on administrative leave. In addition, the district says it’s doing an internal investigation and is also working with police and other agencies.

District officials also said no students in the district appear to be involved and they removed Brashear’s access to all technology systems, including all systems that contain data on staff members and students.

The next day, the district said it received and accepted a resignation from Brashear. In addition, the district said the allegations made against him “did not appear to occur on district property or any of our district devices,” and went on to say the person in the technology director position doesn’t have direct or daily contact with students.

CLICK HERE to read the full statement by the school district made on March 13, and HERE for the follow-up message.

If convicted, Brashear could face 25 years in prison, a fine up to $100,000, as well as an additional charge of $500 for each image or copy of an image associated with the crime. Imprisonment could also include at least three years of initial confinement.