Former choir teacher gets 8 years in prison for child porn
Jul. 4—McALLEN — A former middle school choir teacher is facing eight years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving child pornography videos from a Los Fresnos man, federal authorities said.
Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Orlando Diaz-Ramirez, 33, a Mexican citizen, to 97 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty on Sept. 8, 2023 to receiving 300 videos depicting child pornography from Israel Flores, 22, of Los Fresnos, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a news release.
At a hearing, the court considered information revealing Diaz, who was working as a choir teacher at a local middle school at the time, had eight more gigabytes of child pornography in his Dropbox account, officials stated in the release.
In handing down the sentence, the court noted "Diaz's actions fed into the market for the production of child pornography and the possible victimization of future children," the release stated.
As part of the case, Diaz, who was also previously sentenced to 97 months in prison, was ordered to pay $24,000 to known victims, while Flores was ordered to pay $21,000, officials said.
As a result of the conviction, Diaz and Flores were ordered to register as sex offenders, serving five years on supervised release, under which the law mandates they comply with requirements restricting access to children and the internet, the release stated.
Following his sentencing, Diaz, who is not a U.S. citizen, is expected to face deportation proceedings.
Diaz's sentencing came following a nearly four-year investigation.
In October 2020, investigators identified an individual uploading child pornography into a Dropbox account before linking an IP address to Diaz's Donna home, officials said.
By April 2021, a federal warrant had led authorities to a search of the home before Diaz admitted downloading child pornography through the Kik instant messaging service, then uploading it to his Dropbox account, they said.
During the investigation, Diaz told authorities he possessed a USB drive containing child pornography which Flores had given him, officials said.
Then, authorities contacted Flores at his Los Fresnos home before he admitted giving Diaz the USB drive, they said.
The investigation found Flores used his Kik account to access accounts in Mega, a cloud-based storage and file hosting service, to receive the child pornography before downloading the material onto the USB drive, officials said.
During their review of the flash drive, investigators found 300 child pornography videos depicting "prepubescent minors under the age of 12 engaged in sexual acts with adults," the release stated.
Diaz and Flores remain in custody pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
