08/14/08 – Initial BBT Report)
Joel Matthew Cupp, 29, a teacher at Trinity Oaks Elementary School in New Port Richey, Florida has been arrested on allegations of solicitation on the Internet of someone he thought was a child.
It is alleged that Cupp thought that he was communicating online with three young teenage girls. It is further alleged that Cupp also exposed himself multiple times over a web cam to the “girls”. The “girls” were in reality two different undercover investigators with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and one with the Attorney General’s CyberCrime Unit.
According to a press release by the office of the Florida Attorney General:
The investigation was initiated by the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office which requested assistance from the CyberCrime Unit when the investigators determined Cupp, 29, was located in Pasco County.
The investigation was further coordinated once the investigators realized they were all chatting with the same suspect. A search warrant was executed at Cupp’s New Port Richey residence and Cupp was taken into custody by law enforcement with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and members of the Attorney General’s Tampa Bay CyberCrime Task Force, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Plant City Police Department and the New Port Richey Police Department.
Cupp is the second school teacher arrested by the CyberCrime Task Force this month.
Cupp is charged with three counts of online solicitation and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition, all third-degree felonies and if convicted of all charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
04/03/09 – No Contest Plea and Sentencing
Joel Cupp has reportedly pleaded no contest to three counts of using the Internet to lure children and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition by a person older than 18 years.
As a result of Cupp’s plea, he was sentenced to six years in prison to be followed by six years of probation.
Cupp will also be required to forfeit his teaching license and register as a sex offender.
10/26/09 – More Charges
Joel Cupp, convicted this year of soliciting teenagers over the Internet for sex is facing the same charges in another county.
Cupp was transferred from the state prison in Jackson County to face charges in Martin County, where it is alleged he engaged in lewd and lascivious behavior over the Internet in 2008.
It is alleged that Cupp showed his genitalia to a sheriff’s detective posing as a 14-year-old girl in an Internet chat room in July 2008.
References:
Ex-teacher faces sex charges (10/27/09)
Former Pasco County teacher Joel Cupp gets prison for soliciting child sex (04/04/09)
Tampa CyberCrime Task Force Arrests Elementary School Teacher (08/14/08)
Pasco teacher arrested for online sex crimes (08/14/08)
Trinity Oaks Teacher Charged With Online Soliciting (08/14/08)
Entries (RSS)
“Cupp was taken into custody by law enforcement with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and members of the Attorney General’s Tampa Bay CyberCrime Task Force, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Plant City Police Department and the New Port Richey Police Department.”
REALLY? Did they need THAT many people to get this guy? My god, how dramatic. Must’ve had TV cameras around…or maybe it is an election year?
Pathetic.
this guy was my teacher and the stragest guy ever!!!!!! what a dirtbag.
Wow, what were the odds that he was chatting with two different law enforcement task forces.
I wonder if he will grow his hair back over the next six years.