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.
References:
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)
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