A North St. Paul school recess and traffic monitor has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of possessing child pornography.
William Michael Haslach, 30, of Maplewood, has worked the job at Cowern and Richardson elementary schools and North High in the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District. He was hired in August 2021, and has been placed on administrative leave, a school district spokeswoman said Wednesday.
William Michael Haslach (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Haslach was charged in Ramsey County District Court on Tuesday and scheduled to make a first appearance on the charges Wednesday morning.
According to the criminal complaint, Maplewood police on Jan. 2 received information about a cyber tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that someone had uploaded child pornography to a Dropbox account on Nov. 19.
Detectives found the Dropbox account was accessed from an email account and IP address connected to Haslach and obtained search warrants.
Haslach was arrested Friday during a search of his Maplewood home, and later admitted in an interview with detectives that he has a sexual attraction to children, the complaint says. He said he acquired child pornography from people he met on Telegram, Teleguard and BlueSky, and denied that he has ever had sexual contact with a child.
Officers recovered multiple USB drives and devices that a preliminary forensic examination showed contain approximately 800 files of child pornography.
The Dropbox search warrant turned up multiple files of child pornography. The 10 videos prosecutors used to file charges involve prepubescent females and boys being sexually abused by adults.
Maplewood police said Wednesday they are working to determine if any students are involved in the case, and urged parents or guardians who believe their child is a victim in relation to the investigation to contact the MN BCA victim relations coordinator for the Predatory Crimes Section at 651-793-2465.
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