Man to Plead Guilty in Kid-Porn Case

A former Orange County teacher has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he purchased a videotape containing child pornography, officials said Thursday.

Daniel T. Flynn, 38, of Newport Beach, sent $30 to an undercover U.S. postal inspector posing as a smut peddler after corresponding with him on the Internet, authorities said, with the intent of purchasing a 30-minute tape depicting boys ages 10 to 13 engaged in explicit sex.

“The federal law enforcement community takes crimes against children very seriously,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Y. Lee. “The U.S. attorney’s office is committed to aggressively prosecuting these types of offenses.”

Until recently, Flynn was an employee of the Irvine Unified School District assigned to teach at UC Irvine’s Child Development Center, a facility operated jointly by the university and the district to treat children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

He resigned from that position earlier this week.

“It’s always appalling when you find out something like this,” district Supt. Dean Waldfogel said Thursday. “We are always saddened when we learn that these charges are actually true. Our response is always to take immediate action and it looks like, in this case, he sort of saw what was coming and took action on his own.”

The university issued a statement Thursday saying that there was no evidence that any children at the center were endangered. “No information has been presented as part of the investigation indicating that the welfare of any children at the CDC has been affected by this matter,” the statement said. “The CDC and the university are pleased to have this issue resolved.”

According to court documents, Flynn began corresponding with the undercover postal inspector by e-mail in March. A few weeks later, the documents say, he sent $30 in cash to an Illinois address to procure the pornographic tape. And on May 17, the university’s statement said, he was placed on administrative leave and “denied access to the [child development] center as a result of [the] ongoing

Sue Long, the school district’s deputy superintendent of human resources, described Flynn -- who was hired in 1992 -- as a good teacher with an excellent record.

Flynn could face up to 15 years in prison, Yee said.