Educator Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

A Palmdale elementary school vice principal pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges of transmitting child pornography over the Internet after he allegedly used an online chat room to solicit a minor for sex, authorities said.

Clifford George Doty, 40, agreed to a plea bargain with the U.S. attorney’s office on charges of e-mailing a picture of a young girl engaging in sexual conduct to an undercover San Bernardino County sheriff’s detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl.

Prosecutors agreed to drop two other charges against Doty, one count for using the Internet to attempt to induce a minor to have sex and another count of transmitting child pornography, said Rick Green, special assistant to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Doty could have faced up to 45 years in prison if he had been convicted of all three counts. Instead, he faces up to 46 months behind bars, Green said. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 20.

“He was never going to get the statutory maximum [45 years],” Green said. “We generally try to resolve the case out of court.”

The Lancaster resident, who worked at Quail Valley Elementary School, was arrested Nov. 10. He began teaching in the Palmdale School District in 1983 and became vice principal at Quail Valley in October 1999.

The school district placed him on paid administrative leave when he was arrested.

A 31-page affidavit filed by the FBI detailed a lengthy, sexually explicit e-mail correspondence between Doty and San Bernardino Sheriff’s Det. Mike DiMatteo, who posed online as blond, hazel-eyed, sexually precocious “Rebecca Wst.”

Doty sent numerous pornographic photos to the undercover agent, according to the affidavit. An FBI researcher identified two images sent to “Rebecca Wst” on Sept. 10, 2000, as originating in child pornography magazines published in Denmark.