Bend HS teacher facing 6 child porn charges

(Update: Additional charges not filed, bail back to $50,000)

A Bend Senior High School English teacher was arraigned Thursday on a half-dozen charges involving alleged downloading of child pornography. But police said more charges are likely, after hundreds of images were found on two seized computers.

Jason Brian Jackson, 50, was arrested Wednesday, one day after police said they learned child pornography was being downloaded at a home on SW Brookside Way. A raid on the home turned up evidence that led to the arrest of Jackson at Bend police headquarters.

Deschutes County Circuit Judge Alta Brady had set bail for Jackson at $50,000 at his arraignment on the DA’s initial six-count charging document, including one count of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse and five second-degree counts.

The first charge involved allegedly duplicating the photos and the others related to viewing them. All allegedly occurred on or about April 22 of this year.

Thursday night, online jail records later showed new charges and a $750,000 bail, for a total of $800,000. A jail sergeant said there are 50 more counts of encouraging child sexual abuse.

But the jail log was revised Friday to indicate the additional charges had not been filed and bail was showing at $50,000 total once again.

Jackson is scheduled to be back in court June 14 for arraignment on an expected formal indictment, after the case goes to a grand jury.

Officials with Bend-La Pine Schools, which placed Jackson on administrative leave, said the 12-year Bend High English teacher has not placed on leave in the past.

Lt. Clint Burleigh told NewsChannel 21 two computers were seized and hundreds of child pornography images were found.

“This is a community issue,” Burleigh said. “It does raise a lot of concern, when you have someone who’s a teacher at a local school who’s involved in this.”

Detectives became aware Tuesday of a Bend resident downloading known images depicting child pornography, he said late Wednesday.

An investigation determined they were being downloaded at a home in the 19000 block of SW Brookside Way, Burleigh said. Further investigation identified Jackson as a possible suspect.

Detectives served a search warrant Wednesday at Jackson’s home. Burleigh said Jackson was in contact with detectives during the raid and was identified as the person who had downloaded the images.

Jackson was taken into custody at Bend police headquarters and taken to the Deschutes County Jail, where he first was lodged on two counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse and initial bail was set at $30,000.

“Bend police are continuing the investigation and additional charges could be forthcoming,” Burleigh said.

Bend-La Pine Schools administrators were notified and immediately put Jackson on administrative leave. He has taught English at Bend Senior High since 2006, district officials said.

Bend police thanked the school district and the U.S. Department of Justice Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for their assistance in the investigation.