An international investigation into the trafficking of sexually explicit images in the Pacific Rim helped put FBI agents and Montgomery County Police detectives onto the trail of a physical education teacher at a Bethesda elementary school who was charged last month with possessing child pornography, according to court documents.
Daemon Alan Dartouzos, 54, of Germantown, is facing 10 counts of possessing child pornography and court documents outline how authorities were first tipped to the sale of explicit images of minors and followed the cyber trail to the Ashburton Elementary School teacher.
County police arrested and charged Dartouzos on March 5 and a preliminary hearing Monday is expected to be rescheduled. His attorney declined to comment.
Documents filed in the case provide a new look at how authorities found Dartouzos, who has worked for the county school system since 1991 and was placed in administrative leave in January 2018.
The investigation began in 2014, when electronic money transfer service Xoom notified web provider Yahoo that several accounts were involved in the sale of child exploitation material, according to charging documents. Xoom also sent reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which came to the attention of the Yahoo Electronic Crimes Investigative Team.
The Yahoo team conducted an internal investigation and discovered multiple “Seller” accounts related to facilitating the trafficking of child pornography operating from the Philippines, according to charging documents. This led to the discovery of several “Buyer” accounts known to have purchased images, videos or live streams of child sexual abuse from the seller accounts.
In October 2017, the FBI obtained the information about the seller accounts through a federal search warrant and began reviewing chat correspondences between users, according to charging documents.
One such account with the username “yeahbb345” began interacting with the known seller accounts in December 2012, and investigators found several chats over Yahoo Messenger through October 2014, according to charging documents.
In a July 2013 chat, the seller account asks the user if they like young “naked pics” “and videos,” and yeahbb345 replies “youngnice.”
An examination of the chats linked the yeahbb345 buyer account to an internet address related to Dartouzos.
Yahoo stated that based on the subscriber information associated with the account, it had belonged to the same user since 2011. The findings and suspicions of the Yahoo investigative team were backed up by the international investigation done by the FBI into the seller accounts, according to charging documents.
Numerous children who were being sexually exploited were identified and rescued in the U.S. and the Philippines through these investigations, according to charging documents.
Filipino media company ABS-CBN reported online sexual exploitation remains prevalent in the country, and around 80 percent of the victims are minors. ABS-CBN spoke to an FBI agent who said the sexual exploitation trade has thrived because offenders see cybersex as safer, and there’s control over what you purchase.
Detectives from the county Child Exploitation Unit assisted the FBI’s Child Exploitation Unit for Maryland and Delaware and obtained a search warrant for Dartouzos’ residence in January 2018, according to charging documents.
Investigators seized numerous electronic items from the residence and found 10 digital files depicting prepubescent females performing various sexual acts.
County investigators considered Dartouzos a “danger to society” given his “sexual predilection toward children” and chosen occupation as an elementary school teacher, according to charging documents.
In a letter sent to parents and students, Ashburton Principal Gregory Mullenholz said Dartouzos was placed on administrative leave in January 2018 following the search of his residence.
The school system was asked not to share the details of the case until March to avoid prejudicing an ongoing investigation, Mullenholz said.
A police spokesperson said the extensiveness of the investigation led to the gap between the search and the arrest.
County police said they do not believe the images were of any students at the school.
The school system conducts multipoint background checks on potential employees before hiring them, including fingerprinting, interviews and a Child Protective Services review.
A spokesman for the school system said they’re in the process of re-fingerprinting all employees to input into the federal Rap Back service, which monitors all hires for an indefinite period of time, eliminating the need for repeated background checks and fingerprinting.
Maryland law prohibits the school system from hiring or retaining a person who has been convicted or pleaded guilty to child abuse or sexual offense, among other crimes.
Employees are required to take student safety training, which includes prevention, recognition and reporting of child abuse and neglect.
