Baltimore County School Coach Indicted For Child Pornography

Attorney General Frosh, State’s Attorney Alsobrooks Announce Indictment of Prince George’s County Man on Charges of Child Porn and Abuse

BALTIMORE, MD (December 21, 2017) – Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh and Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks today announced the indictment of Christopher Speights, 32, of Capitol Heights, on multiple charges of sex abuse of a minor and child pornography. (1.)

On December 14, 2017, Christopher Speights was indicted by the Prince George’s County Grand Jury on charges of Sex Abuse of a Minor and Child Pornography. According to the indictment, while an employee of the Prince George’s County Public School System, (2.)

Speights chaperoned a two-day trip with school students in 2015. During this trip, Speights took pornographic photographs of a student. These photographs were recovered from his personal device.

After months of an investigation which started around January of 2017, Christopher H. Speights 34, of Capitol Heights Maryland was finally arrested and charged with six counts of possession of child pornography and three counts of distributing child pornorgraphy. Speights worked for almost nine years at the Bradbury Heights Elementary School as substitute teacher, and basketball coach. In addition he also worked for the South County Sports Academy as a basketball coach.

On December 19, 2017, Christopher Speights was indicted by the Worcester County Grand Jury on charges of Sex Abuse of a Minor and Child Pornography. While serving as the head coach of a 12 and under basketball league, Speights chaperoned a trip to Ocean City, Maryland. During this trip, Christopher Speights took pornographic photographs of a juvenile member of the team. These photographs were recovered from his personal device. (3.)

Speights’ arrest comes three months after former Prince George’s County teacher’s aide Deonte Carraway pleaded guilty to 15 federal child-pornography counts; he faces 270 more state charges. According to charging documents for Speights, the electronic-storage company Dropbox tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone might have been using the service to store or distribute child pornography involving children as young as five years old. The center informed state police, who obtained a warrant and searched Speights’ residence about 5:30 a.m. Thursday. (4.)

The state police said in the statement that Speights admitted that the Dropbox account was his, and that he had uploaded the child pornography to it. Police found several devices in the residence that they said had child pornography stored on them. Additional charges are pending. (5.)

“Christopher Speights betrayed the trust of his employer, of the parents who entrusted their children to him, and of the children he supervised and coached,” said Attorney General Frosh:

“He victimized vulnerable children and with these indictments, faces many years in jail.”
“Mr. Speights is a predator of the worst kind, preying on innocent children whose care and safety
he was responsible for,” said State’s Attorney Alsobrooks. “He used his position and authority
to take advantage of these children and I want to thank all of our law enforcement partners for
helping to secure multiple indictments against him. We look forward to holding him accountable
for his actions.” (6.)

All of these images were recovered by Maryland State Police during the course of an ongoing investigation. In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Frosh thanked Assistant Attorneys General Katie Dorian and Kelly Burrell, the Maryland State Police Internet Crimes Task Force, the State’s Attorney’s Office for Prince George’s County, Prince George’s County Assistant State’s Attorney Brenda Harkavy, and the State’s Attorney’s Office for Worcester County, Maryland for their assistance on the case. A trial date for these charges have not yet been scheduled. (7.)

Aujunai Charpentiair

Contributors

Maryland Office Of the Attorney General Press Release 1,2,3,6,7

WTOP Rick Massimo 4,5