Ky. teacher sentenced to 30 years for child porn, cyberstalking victim after arrest
A Letcher County Middle School teacher was sentenced earlier this week to 370 months — a little more than 30 years — in prison for producing child pornography and cyberstalking his victim.
Charles Evans Hall Jr., 49, of Jackhorn, was convicted after a three-day trial in October 2021. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom in London federal court.
The victim was a then 14-year-old student, according to the Whitesburg Mountain Eagle.
Hall met the girl when he was her teacher in middle school and began “grooming” her for abuse, the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna E. Reed, said in a sentencing memorandum.
The victim testified that after class, Hall touched her over her clothing, and also took part in inappropriate conduct and comments in his classroom, according to the memo.
Hall convinced the student to set up a secret Snapchat account to send him sexually explicit pictures and videos, according to evidence presented at Hall’s trial.
“The government is strained to find a more egregious instance in which an individual abuses their position of public trust,” Reed wrote. “Parents do not send their children to school to be sexually fondled, groomed, and preyed upon by the very people we trust to protect them in our absence.”
Kentucky State Police seized his cell phone in November 2018. After the police took his cell phone, Hall used an Instagram account to continue cyberstalking the victim and encouraged the victim to destroy evidence. Hall threatened the victim when the victim refused to comply, according to court records and evidence presented at trial.
Hall “repeatedly badgered” the girl for her account passwords in order to delete incriminating content after police interviewed him, according to the government memo.
Hall told the girl if she didn’t help him destroy evidence, he would lose his children, and even threatened to kill himself, the prosecutor said.
While in jail, Hall convinced an inmate to enlist someone not in custody to contact the victim again, prosecutors said. Hall told the victim to alter her statement to police and prosecutors.
Under federal rules, Hall must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 10:46 AM.
