Ex-Madras school custodian sentenced for child porn

A Metolius man who worked for 11 years as a Madras school custodian has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for possession and distribution of child pornography, although authorities said Friday no evidence was found of any inappropriate contact involving students at the school.

Cecilio Galan, 45, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Eugene to 63 months in prison and five years of supervised release, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Galan was found in possession of child pornography he found on the Internet, then made it available to others on a file-sharing site, in hopes he could obtain more such materials.

The activities took place while Galan was a custodian at Buff Intermediate School, having served earlier as a reserve police officer and a bus driver, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

“The investigation did not reveal any evidence that Galan had any inappropriate contact with the students at the school where he worked,” a news release stated.

Galan was arraigned on the charges in February of 2012. He had been employed as a janitor at the school since 2000, but Jefferson County School District 509-J officials said at the time that he had not been employed by the district since October 2011.

The school district said it cooperated with law enforcement during the investigation, and that there was no evidence any students in the district were involved in his activities.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Potter.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. It marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, visit that site and click on the “resources” tab.