Man enters guilty plea to charges of child pornography

Deepa Bharath

A 38-year-old Newport Beach man pleaded guilty on Monday to one count

of attempting to receive a videotape that contained child

pornography, officials said.

Daniel T. Flynn worked as a teacher for the Irvine Unified School

District at UC Irvine’s Child Development Center, which houses the

program for children suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity

disorder.

Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced on March 15, when he can get as

much as 15 years in federal prison, said Asst. U.S. Atty. Richard

Lee.

Possession of child pornography is a crime under both state and

federal law, he said.

“The only difference is it’s a felony under federal law and a

misdemeanor under state law,” Lee said.

Flynn was charged with a felony by federal authorities because he

ordered the video tape from another state, Lee said.

Prosecutors said the investigation began in March when Flynn sent

an e-mail to an undercover U.S. postal inspector seeking to purchase

a 30-minute videotape of minors engaging in sexually explicit acts.

On May 16, the Postal Inspection Service and other officers

delivered the $30 tape that Flynn had ordered over the Internet.

Flynn then took that package and kept it in his car, officials said.

Flynn could not be reached for comment.

Flynn had worked one-on-one with children at the UCI program for

more than 10 years, Irvine Unified School District officials said.

They said the teacher went through fingerprinting and background

checks that are mandated by state law.

Flynn was placed on administrative leave in May and denied access

to the center when the investigation began, UCI officials said.

He resigned shortly afterward, officials said.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath @latimes.com.