Warrenton elementary principal indicted on federal child porn charges

Federal authorities on Thursday indicted an assistant principal at an elementary school near the Prince William-Fauquier line on child pornography charges.

Joshua Myers, 29, worked at Greenville Elementary School in Fauquier County. The school lists its address as Nokesville. 

Myers was indicted on two counts of distributing child pornography, and one count of receiving child pornography, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Peter Carr said.

Carr said that Myers was identified through an undercover investigation of people who use peer-to-peer file sharing programs to share child pornography.

Myers allegedly discussed a sexual interest in minor boys to an undercover agent online, Carr said.

He also allegedly provided the agent with a password to folders containing child pornography.

Carr said that the agent found several child pornography videos in the folder, including one of a minor boy who authorities said “appears to have been raped” by a man, as well as a video depicting a woman sexually abusing a toddler.

Myers allegedly admitted to being the person authorities spoke with on the file sharing network and to trading child pornography on it when he was arrested on June 15 at his Warrenton home, authorities said.

Carr said that subsequent forensic analysis of seized evidence corroborated Myers’ alleged admission.

Myers also allegedly told officers that child pornography was on his work computer and a thumb drive, Carr said.

Federal authorities said in a June press release that Myers told an undercover agent that he traveled to California to have sex with a child "and had engaged in sexual contact with children ages nine to 14 years old."

Fauquier County Public Schools said in a press release last month that the school board and administration are “deeply troubled and disturbed” by Myers’ arrest.

Myers, who has been employed with the county schools since 2004, was slated to become principal at Brumfield Elementary School in Warrenton this month, the release said.

The school system said Myers was suspended without pay.

They also assured parents that there was no indication that any student enrolled in the Fauquier school system was involved with “circumstances that led to Myers’ arrest.”

The investigation into Myers was performed by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation Task Force, with assistance from Warrenton Police and the Northern Virginia/District of Columbia Internet Crimes against Children Task Force, with cooperation from Fauquier public schools, Carr’s press release stated.

The case was brought up as part of Project Safe Childhood, a program to combat what Carr said was a “growing epidemic” of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Staff writer David Pierce can be reached at 703-530-3905.