PITTSBURGH — Detectives with the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office arrested a substitute middle school teacher for the Baldwin-Whitehall School District on Tuesday and charged him with possession and dissemination of child pornography.
Prosecutors identified the suspect as 25-year-old Matthew Sokol.
According to the criminal complaint, Twitter Inc. reported to authorities that a user with a screen name “playfulteacher” uploaded two files that were suspected to be child pornography onto Twitter.
The social media company provided the user's IP address and authorities subpoenaed Verizon's records on Aug. 28.
On Sept. 2, Verizon responded with information that led police to Sokol's home on Mission Street in the South Side Slopes and his parents' house on Kaufmann Avenue in Brentwood.
On Sept. 17, a special agent with the FBI turned the case over to the District Attorney's Office, which reviewed the information and discovered the images.
Detectives with the District Attorney's Office and agents from the FBI Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force served a warrant at Sokol's home.
When asked whether he knew why the agents were at his house, “(Sokol) stated that he did and it was because of what he has done. He stated that his (Twitter) account got suspended in July and attributed it to some pictures that he had re-tweeted. He admitted that he had searched on Twitter for images of children.”
Sokol told investigators he began looking at child pornography five years ago while he was in college.
“He stated that he teaches seventh and eighth grade students at Baldwin-Whitehall School District and he can keep his work and personal interests separate. He didn't think that it was an issue that he is interested in the same age range of children that he teaches,” the complaint said.
Sokol told investigators that he saved the images on his cellphone, on which detectives found more than 50 pornographic images of children. Investigators said the images were of children as young as 8 years old.
According to investigators, Sokol told them he did nothing wrong, saying, “It’s my home and my personal life, that’s how I justify it. As long as I’m not having sex with children and not taking pictures, it’s not illegal what I am doing.”
Sokol is awaiting arraignment at Pittsburgh Municipal Court scheduled for 9:30 p.m.
Baldwin-Whitehall Superintendent Randal Lutz told Channel 11 News that Sokol has been employed by the district as a sub since August and as soon as the district learned of the charges, he was terminated.
Lutz said a letter will go home with students on Tuesday making parents aware of the situation. School officials don’t believe any students were involved.
Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE contributed to this report.