| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) A former elementary school teacher was sentenced to a year in county jail and placed on five years probation after pleading guilty to 14 felony counts of producing child pornography.
James Hiland, 37, of Anaheim was sentenced Friday under a plea agreement reached with Orange County Superior Court Judge Kelly MacEachern, said Deputy District Attorney Joe Dane.
If the case had gone to trial, he could have faced over 11 years in prison, Dane said.
Police found hundreds of pictures stored on Hiland's computer in March and were able to identify 14 of the boys, including 12 students at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, where Hiland taught for nine years. The victims range in age from 11 to 17.
Hiland posed the boys to allow him to view up their shorts, and most were not aware their genitals were photographed, prosecutors said.
Hiland resigned from his position with the Anaheim City School District a week after the investigation began.
He will have to register as a sex offender and was required to seek counseling under the plea agreement.
The investigation began in November when two 13-year-old boys told a school counselor that they had been persuaded by Hiland to be photographed and they were uncomfortable with his behavior.