Ex-Teacher Sentenced In 'Sextortion' Scheme Involving Morris Co. Teen: Police

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — A former Missouri high school teacher will serve 30 years in federal prison after admitting to blackmailing dozens of children for sexually explicit pictures and images, including a teen in Morris County, according to authorities.

Brandon McCullough, 31, a business teacher from Branson, Missouri, admitted to posing as a teenager in online messaging apps and pleaded guilty to coercing minors to engage in illicit sexual activity and sexual exploitation of minors in Aug. 2021, said U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of Missouri, McCullough was sentenced on Aug. 2 before a U.S. District Court judge in Missouri, who ordered him to serve his three-decade term behind bars without the possibility of early release on parole and to spend the rest of his life on supervised release.

McCullough will also have to pay $204,199 in restitution to one of the victims.

“This defendant, a high school teacher, pretended to be a teenager online in order to prey upon young victims across the country,” Moore said. “He victimized 11 children who have been identified and many more who have not yet been identified, in a horrific sexploitation scheme. He enticed countless child victims to send him explicit images of themselves, then threatened to share those images with their families and friends over social media unless they continued to send him even more explicit images and videos. Such appalling criminal behavior warrants the severe penalty he received today.”

The initial investigation began in May 2019 when the mother of a 14-year-old Florham Park girl went to local police to report an unknown individual who was threatening her child on various social media platforms.

According to the Florham Park Police Department, which issued a statement after McCullough's sentence, members of the police department worked for months with local and federal agencies, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the United States Homeland Security Investigations, and identified McCullough as a suspect.

McCullough, who worked at Cassville High School at the time, contacted the Morris County girl and pretended to be a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy in two separate Kik threads, according to authorities. McCullough allegedly threatened to send the photos and videos to the girl's family and friends after she agreed to share the explicit images with him.

In May 2020, federal investigators searched McCullough's home and discovered a hard drive hidden under a bathroom sink containing dozens of saved folders from the social media application Kik.

According to authorities, the folders contained thousands of images and videos of child pornography taken by the victims.

Investigators said they were able to identify 11 victims, including the Florham Park teen, but dozens more could not. McCullough told police he couldn't say how many minors he spoke with or how frequently he did it because he did it so frequently and as early as November 2018.

According to officials, McCullough still faces a three-count indictment in state Superior Court in Morris County for endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated sexual assault.

McCullough was also previously charged by Florham Park police in August 2020 and faces a maximum state prison sentence of up to 35 years.

"We are pleased to have learned the criminal, Mr. Brandon McCullough, currently 31 years old from Branson, Missouri was sentenced," Florham Park police said.