Former teacher arrested on child porn charges

May 20—A former Coquille High School teacher is behind bars on a $200,000 bond after a Coos County grand jury indicted him on 30 felony counts of encouraging child sex abuse.

Kory Sturgess, who was fired by the Coquille School District when he was arrested in October, is facing 15 charges of encouraging child sex abuse in the first degree and 15 counts of encouraging child sex abuse in the second degree. The first degree charge is a Class B felony while the second-degree charge is a Class C felony.

The grand jury handed down the indictments May 10, and the Coquille Police Department began searching for Sturgess three days later after an arrest warrant was signed and finalized.

The same day, officers with the Coquille Police Department worked with officers from the Springfield Police Department to find and arrest Sturgess. He was returned to Coos County and booked into the Coos County Jail, where he remained as of Tuesday.

According to an earlier report in The World, Sturgess was arrested in October after an investigation by the Coquille Police Department revealed Sturgess was involved in manufacturing photos depicting children in sexually explicit manners.

Police served a search warrant at his home, and which time Sturgess was arrested.

At the time of his arrest, Sturgess was a geometry and algebra teacher at Coquille High School. At the time, police said there was no indication Sturgess had done anything improper with local children.