Former Cane Creek Middle School teacher sentenced for possession of child pornography

Karen Chávez, Asheville Citizen Times
·4 min read
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Christopher Todd
Christopher Todd

ASHEVILLE - Christopher Lee Todd, a former Cane Creek Middle School teacher found guilty of possession of child pornography, was sentenced July 18 to just over three years in prison, according to U.S. Attorney spokesperson Lia Bantavani.

"He was sentenced to 39 months, a lifetime of supervised release and was ordered to register as a sex offender," Bantavani said July 25.

Todd was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Max Cogburn Jr. in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. A July 14 court document also shows that Todd, 50, was ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution to one of his victims.

The charge of possession of child pornography carries a statutory penalty of no more than 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Previous reporting:

The Citizen Times previously reported that Todd, 50, took a plea deal in December after an investigation early last year found he had more than 20,000 images and videos of child pornography on six electronic devices, including an iPhone, external hard drives, a laptop and a desktop computer.

He was arrested Dec. 28 and currently is in federal holding without bond at the Buncombe County Detention Center.

Todd's attorney, Thomas Amburgey, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Todd filed a guilty plea in U.S. District Magistrate Judge David Cayer's court on Dec. 17 for one count of possession of child pornography.

He was a Project Lead the Way teacher at Cane Creek, according to Buncombe County Schools spokesperson Stacia Harris. She said Todd was hired Aug. 14, 2015, and resigned Feb. 16, 2021.

Todd, whose online aliases in court documents included "waffleofdeath" and "verumsanguinis," had been the subject of an investigation since Jan. 19, 2021, when the Asheville Police Department received an online tip about Todd's illegal activity. He had been uploading and downloading child pornography, court documents state.

Two days later, on Jan. 21, they obtained a North Carolina state-issued search warrant for Todd's home in Arden and seized 16 electronic devices from Todd, six of which contained child pornography.

More: WNC man, a registered sex offender, sentenced to 24.5 years for child pornography

Plea deal details in U.S. Department of Justice documents obtained by the Citizen Times show a former Cane Creek Middle School teacher could face decades in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for possessing more than 20,000 files of child pornography.

Carried with that single count is a $250,000 fine and "not more than" 20 years in prison, according to court documents. Depending on numerous factors related to ongoing investigations and hearings, a federal court could decide to alter those penalties, court documents show.

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The three-year sentence appears to be lower than in similar cases of child pornography. According to news releases from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina:

In February, John Wayne Drysdale, 69, of Minneapolis, who was living in Rutherford County, was sentenced to 180 months (15 years) in prison for transportation of child pornography, by Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reisinger.

In April, Martin Lee McGee, 32, of Morganton, was sentenced to 160 months (13.3 years) in federal prison for transporting child pornography, and to pay more than $40,000 in victim services fees, for uploading more than 13,500 images using Snapchat.

In May, Cogburn sentenced Blake Forest Watson, 65, of Nebo, to 180 months in prison for receiving child pornography. Watson possessed in excess of 3,000 images depicting child pornography.

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According to the North Carolina SAFE Child Act, every adult — any person age 18 or older — "who knows or should have reasonably known that a juvenile has been or is the victim of a violent offense, sexual offense, or misdemeanor child abuse" must immediately report the case to local law enforcement in the county where the juvenile resides or is found.

Call Asheville police at 828-252-1110 for incidents in the city. Call Buncombe County Sheriff's Office for incidents in the county at 828-250-4503. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911

Karen Chávez is Content Coach/Investigations Editor for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Tips? Call 828-712-6316, email, KChavez@CitizenTimes.com or follow on Twitter @KarenChavezACT.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Former Buncombe middle school teacher sentenced for child pornography