Aiken County authorities have arrested a local band teacher for allegedly possessing child porn on his phone.
Michael George Poda, 34, of Aiken, was charged Wednesday with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in the third degree. Poda, a band teacher for the last two years at Schofield Middle School, has been released on a $15,000 bond. The school district says he has been placed on administrative leave after the arrest.
Warrants say the investigation started in April when Poda was found in possession of child sexual abuse material on his Samsung smart phone. In one file, he had an image of a 10- to 12-year-old female, fully nude and facing the camera, a warrant says. Another one has two girls the same age with one showing herself fully nude and the other only revealing only her breasts.
Another image had a video of another girl of similar age wearing a white crop top. “She pulls her shirt outwards revealing her breast,” the warrant says. “This was discovered on a message thread between the defendant and another person on the defendant’s Samsung smart phone after executing a search warrant at his home.”
Investigators received a CyberTip report from the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, which led to the investigation and arrest. The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office was assisted in this case by the Attorney General’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and the U.S. Secret Service.
The case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.
The arrest comes just days after Columbia County arrested former Richmond Hill Middle School teacher Ryan Manley on similar charges.
