Former Forest teacher sentenced on child porn charges

Media General News Service
Published: November 4, 2008

CULPEPER — A former Forest Middle School teacher convicted in a child pornography case was ordered Monday to serve 10 years in prison.

Stanley W. Deloach, 48, pleaded guilty in May to a June 2007 incident in which he had sexually explicit online exchanges with an investigator posing as a teenage girl. There was no actual child involved in the case.

A Culpeper County Circuit Court judge handed down a 56-year sentence Monday, with all but 10 years suspended or running concurrently, for 12 counts of felony child pornography.

The case was heard in Culpeper because the investigation originated with the Culpeper division of the State Police.

One month before his arrest, Deloach resigned after seven years of teaching at Forest Middle School. He taught media and social studies courses there. School officials have previously said they were unaware of the child pornography charges at the time of Deloach’s resignation.

Urging Judge Jack Berry to deliver a stern punishment, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Dale Durrer cited the “high degree of planning” on Deloach’s part and the implications of Deloach’s status as a teacher.

“Teachers are leaders,” Durrer said. “They are in a position of trust and when a leader breaches that position of trust, they should be held to a higher standard.”

Defense attorney T.C. Lea argued that the case was entrapment. Before Deloach was sentenced, he apologized for his actions, expressing his “guilt, shame and sorrow.”

In addition to serving 10 years in prison, Deloach must remain on good behavior for 20 years, with supervised probation for the first three, and register as sex offender in Virginia.

He faced a maximum of 110 years if Berry had imposed the maximum penalty on all 12 charges, which included soliciting a minor for pornography, reproducing child pornography and taking indecent liberties with a minor.