Va. bus driver pleads guilty to multiple child porn charges

COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (WWBT) -A former Colonial Heights bus driver pleaded guilty to several child pornography possession and distribution charges, according to court documents.

Last year, a Homeland Security Investigations agent went undercover in the texting app Viber and found user “Jason Morgan” uploading almost 40 images of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) to a group named “Kids Boys.”

An investigation revealed Richard Jerod Whitely, Jr. used the pseudonym “Jason Morgan” as his Viber application username. Whitley also told law enforcement that he was a part of over 120 Viber group chats that would share child sexual assault materials of underaged boys.

The documents also state that Whitely was not only a subscriber of these groups but also the administrator for many of them.

The documents say that he traded these materials with other Viber users. Whitely was found with thousands of images and videos of children, toddlers and infants in sexually explicit contexts.

Through information provided by Homeland Security, the FBI confirmed Whitely was a school bus driver for North Elementary School in Colonial Heights, where he routinely would communicate with students on his bus through text and Instagram.

Court records say he also regularly gave candy, snacks, gift cards, and other gifts to the children and, on at least one occasion, sent an unknown amount of money to one student on their birthday.

Whitely faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years in prison with a maximum term of 20 years behind bars and a fine of $250,000.

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