Cheyenne Teacher Charged with Child Porn Distribution
A Cheyenne elementary school teacher is facing up to 20 years in prison after authorities found child pornography on his laptop.
Matt Bell, a 6th grade teacher at Henderson Elementary, was arrested for attempted distribution of child pornography on December 30, 2016.
According to court documents, the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation began looking into Bell in July after receiving a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip stated that someone had attached a sexually explicit image of a prepubescent girl to an email.
On October 5, officers executing a search warrant at Bell's home discovered 87 pictures of suspected child porn on Bell's laptop. Bell stated that he had searched for child porn as recently as three weeks prior. He also told investigators that he had coached football at Henderson, but denied any inappropriate touching.
On December 27, Bell was re-interviewed and stated that he searched the internet for child porn on his laptop. He said his age of interest was 15 to 16-year-olds and that he had joined a website forum in which he and two to three others would exchange child porn via email.
Bell's preliminary/detention hearing is scheduled for January 6 at 11 a.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Kelly Rankin.