COLUMBUS, Ohio — A former high school teacher in Columbus is now facing federal charges related to using hidden cameras to take thousands of explicit videos of students.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio said 47-year-old Justin Foley was taken into custody and appeared in federal court on Wednesday.
Foley was employed as a chemistry teacher at Columbus Alternative High School at the time of his alleged offenses.
He is charged with sexually exploiting minors and disturbing, receiving and possessing child pornography.
Foley is accused of using his cell phone and other devices in a hidden manner to capture up-skirt videos at school and other public places.
According to court records, the Delaware Police Department received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding numerous images of apparent child pornography that were uploaded via Google email accounts.
Investigators were able to track the IP addresses for the reported accounts to Foley. His email accounts allegedly contained numerous videos that were “voyeuristic in nature and appear to have been self-produced.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the videos appear to have been recorded at the school, at local department stores in central Ohio, in public areas of downtown Delaware and in dressing rooms.
Foley was arrested and charged locally in Delaware County in September 2022. Officials executed a search warrant at his residence on Sept. 20.
Court records state that Foley admitted to creating videos in the classroom and hallways of the school and that he had created some videos as recently as the previous week.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said his federal charges will supersede his previous local charges.
Sexually exploiting a minor is a crime punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison. Distribution and receipt of child pornography is a crime punishable by five to 20 years in prison.