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South Daytona teacher accused of possessing thousands of child porn images

By Amanda Ober
WESH
July 16, 2014

http://www.wesh.com/news/south-daytona-teacher-accused-of-possessing-thousands-of-child-porn-images/26949028#!bfR379

A South Daytona teacher is accused of possessing thousands of images of child pornography.

[with video]

SOUTH DAYTONA, Fla. —A South Daytona teacher is accused of possessing thousands of images of child pornography, and distributing more than 100 images and several videos to an undercover FBI agent.

 

Investigators arrested 42-year-old Matthew Graziotti Monday at his Edgewater home. He is a middle school teacher, coach and director of the summer camp program at Warner Christian Academy in South Daytona.

"We were all shocked, really were," said Warner Christian Academy Superintendent Mark Tress. "Like I said, there was nothing at all that pointed to that, because if there were I would have been investigating that."

Neighbors watched as the agents carried out bags of evidence and then escorted Graziotti out of his home in handcuffs. They say he hung his head.

"Almost ashamed because there were a couple of us that knew him that were out and I think he was upset that a couple of us who knew him. What he had done," said neighbor Susan Hoff.

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According to the criminal complaint, the FBI recovered a laptop with more than 8,000 images of child porn. Most of the images showed the sexual abuse and exploitation of prepubescent children, investigators said.

Agents allegedly found a folder titled "personally known" that contained 41 subfolders titled with boys names.

The report also said at least one of the images showed Graziotti engaged in a sex act on young boy. 

As for who the alleged victims may have been, that's unknown, including whether any of them could have been Graziotti's students.

"That we don't know. I can honestly tell you that I firmly believe that didn't happen here. We don't allow our teachers to be in situations like that," Tress said.

School officials said the summer camp Graziotti directed is still going on, and it will have counselors available to help kids and staff work through any issues.

A few years ago, Graziotti served as a youth pastor at Friendship Community Church in Edgewater. It is unclear if the FBI is investigating possible victims there.

Edgewater police are involved in the investigation to find out if the victims are local. Police also said they are reopening a case from 10 years ago when Graziotti was accused of inappropriately touching a child.

 




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