GREENSBORO (NC)
WFMY [Greensboro, NC]
March 2, 2026
By Jeremy Vernon
A Guilford County judge set a $750,000 secured bond Monday for a former Vandalia Christian School teacher accused of using artificial intelligence and photo editing software to superimpose his students’ faces onto child sexual abuse material.
Richard Lynn Upright, 56, appeared in court for the first time following his Feb. 27 arrest on 10 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. A detective testified that investigators ultimately identified 111 confirmed images of child sexual abuse material tied to Upright across seven cyber tips submitted by Google to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
At the hearing, the judge acknowledged the emotional nature of the case but said the bond decision had to be grounded in law and evidence. Citing sentencing guidelines that recommend a secured bond range of $15,000 to $75,000 for a Class E felony — the classification that carries a maximum of 136 months in prison per count — the judge applied that range across all 10 charges and set bond at $750,000.
Detective Miller of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office testified that the investigation into Upright began in December 2025 after Google flagged a Drive account linked to him and reported it to NCMEC. The tip was routed through the FBI and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation before landing with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office. A subpoena to Charter Communications confirmed the IP address was registered to Upright’s home on Pleasant Garden Road, less than a mile from Vandalia Christian School.
Search warrants executed at both locations on Feb. 27 revealed that many of the images depicted students whose faces had been manipulated onto explicit material using AI or photo editing tools, according to detective testimony.
A parent of two students — one currently in Upright’s class, one who had him as a teacher six years ago — addressed the court and urged the judge not to release him. He described one daughter’s fear of adult men, her reluctance to attend a dance competition and her difficulty navigating the school day without a parent present.
“Not being able to protect my child from that and being able to see this,” the father said, “is trying.”
Upright, who was appointed a public defender at the hearing, waived a probable-cause hearing and is scheduled to return to Guilford County district court on March 31. The investigation is ongoing.