Court documents show Colonial Heights school employee allegedly distributed child pornography

COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (WWBT) - A Colonial Heights school employee was arrested on Monday for allegedly distributing child pornography.

The unsealed court documents show that 37-year-old Richard Whitley Jr. allegedly uploaded almost 40 videos online of sexually explicit material involving a child under an alias.

Back in August of 2022, Homeland Security notified the Norfolk FBI of approximately 38 videos that had been uploaded to a group chat on the messaging app called Viber.

The chat’s name was titled “Kids Boys” and, at one point, had 88 users in it.

The account that sent the videos had a phone number attached and went under the name Jason Morgan.

According to the affidavit, investigators traced the number back to Whitley, who was living in Petersburg while working at North Elementary School in Colonial Heights.

The court document describes two of those videos uploaded involving a man committing sexual acts with a boy in a bed. It did not state if the man in the video was Whitley or who the child was.

According to a statement posted on the school division’s Facebook page, Whitley was hired back in 2018 and worked as a teacher’s aide and served as a substitute bus driver.

The post also stated that if any student or parent needs additional support, contact the school administration.

Whitley was arrested Monday at his home in Petersburg and is charged with distributing child pornography.

He is being held at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail and has a preliminary hearing in Norfolk on Wednesday.

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