Malcolm Douglas Crawford accepted a plea deal on Friday after he was charged with making a false statement to an FBI agent.
Crawford, whose age was not listed in court records, was working as a substitute teacher at Snyder High School in March.
Court records said, “[FBI] Special Agent Keith Quigley was conducting an investigation into the possible possession of child pornography by Malcolm Douglas Crawford on an iPad while at Snyder High School.”
Snyder Police confronted Crawford about the iPad and asked to see it.
“Crawford located his iPad,” court records said, “… and he threw the iPad into the trash.”
“He also located an older iPad that he owned and he presented that iPad,” court records said.
Later, when confronted by the FBI, Crawford told an FBI agent that he did not have an iPad while working as a substitute at the school. The agent showed Crawford a picture proving he had the iPad while working as a substitute. According to court records, Crawford told the agent that he got rid of the iPad several years ago.
“He knew that this statement was false because he had just thrown it away the day before,” court records said. “Crawford persisted in making the false statements even though [the FBI agent] warned him that he could be prosecuted for lying to the FBI.”
The iPad was never located, according to court records.
The maximum penalty is eight years in prison. If his guilty plea is accepted, then he will be sentenced at a later date.