A 53-year-old teacher from Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, has been arrested on multiple counts of possession of child pornography. In May, detectives from the Mount Pleasant Police Department received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the downloading of child sexual abuse material.
Following this tip, they obtained a search warrant for the residence of James Broetzmann and executed it on Tuesday. During the search, officials used electronic detection dogs to locate hidden storage devices that contained files of child sexual abuse material.
Broetzmann now faces eight felony counts of possession of child pornography, with each count carrying a potential sentence of up to 25 years in prison. The charges have a mandatory minimum of three years.
After this revelation, Broetzmann, a teacher at The Prairie School, was terminated from his position. School President Nat Coffman sent a letter to parents stating that Broetzmann was fired and that there is no evidence suggesting any harm was caused to students, according to The Racine County Eye.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate or illegal adult behavior and we are fully cooperating with law enforcement. At this time, there is no evidence of other criminal activity or that any Prairie students were involved,” the letter stated. “We are shocked and appalled by this news, and we are fully cooperating with local law enforcement.”