Former Forest teacher convicted in child porn case

Media General News Service
Published: May 7, 2008

CULPEPER - A former Forest Middle School teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to 12 felony child pornography charges.

Stanley William Deloach, 48, entered his plea in Culpeper County Circuit Court before Judge John R. Cullen. Under the agreement, Cullen acknowledged that Deloach will not face additional charges in this case.

The charges stem from an incident that began last June when authorities say Deloach engaged in sexually explicit online exchanges with an investigator posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Cullen ordered chat transcripts, photographs and other digital evidence submitted to the court by Culpeper County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Walther be sealed due to their pornographic nature.

Deloach had resigned from the Bedford County school system a month before his arrest last summer. He had taught media and social studies courses at Forest Middle School since 2000, according to school system officials.

School officials have said they were unaware of the child pornography charges at the time of Deloach’s resignation.

During the 30-minute hearing on Wednesday, Virginia State Police investigator Marc Quince testified that he first encountered a Yahoo screen name, later connected to Deloach, in 2005 while investigating Internet crimes in Clarke County.

However, Quince said no evidence of a crime occurred at that time and the manpower to keep track of that lead was not available. Quince testified that he recognized the screen name when it surfaced again during a June 2007 investigation. Deloach was arrested in Bedford County on July 11.

Quince also told the court that there is no evidence to suggest Deloach had physical contact with minors.

The case is in Culpeper because the investigation originated with the Culpeper division of the State Police. The Northern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Appomattox and Salem divisions of the Virginia State Police, the Culpeper County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office also took part in the investigation.

Deloach, off Millwoods North Road in Boonesboro, will return to court Aug. 5 for sentencing. The maximum penalty on all charges would be more than 100 years in prison.

Delesline is a staff writer for The Star-Exponent in Culpeper.