BOISE — Former Borah High School marketing teacher Ronald Keith Neil pleaded guilty in federal court in Boise Tuesday to possessing child pornography on a school district laptop computer he had at his home. Neil was placed on administrative leave on September 5 and resigned his position December 19. Sentencing is set for May 14 at 1 p.m. at the federal courthouse in Boise.

Neil, 41, faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents discovered Neil’s activity after an unrelated investigation revealed that Neil’s personal credit card and home e-mail address had been used to purchase access to child pornography Web sites. The transactions dated back as far as the fall of 2002. Neil also obtained pornographic images from other individuals using peer-to-peer file sharing software and Windows Messenger.

Two computers were seized from Neil’s home pursuant to a search warrant on Sep. 5, 2007. When agents entered the house, one of the computers was in the process of downloading a pornographic video involving teenage males. Neil told agents the file had appeared after he typed a search word often used by people seeking a certain kind of child pornography on the Internet.

Analysis of the laptop computers turned up at least six videos and 50 still images that depicted young boys, some of them prepubescent, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  

According to an analysis by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, eight of the images were of known minor victims of child pornography outside of Idaho, including images from Florida, Texas, Alabama and Russia. The children in the other photos remain unidentified.

The second computer contained sexually explicit imagines of unidentified young males, but Neil was not charged for possessing these images since the ages of the persons depicted couldn’t be determined.

As a high school teacher, a tennis coach, and liaison for the American Field Service’s international exchange program at Borah, Neil had contact with many teenagers, according to U.S. Department of Justice public information officer Jean McNeil. Federal agents are asking that anyone with relevant information — particularly information that would help identify the children in the pictures — call Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boise, at 685-6674.

“Some predators mistakenly believe the anonymity of cyberspace shields them from scrutiny; in fact, their use of computers and the Internet have given us new tools in our enforcement efforts to protect children,” said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of ICE’s office of investigations that oversees Idaho. “ICE remains committed to investigating this type of on-line activity to prevent the exploitation of children.”

“Anyone who possesses child pornography worries us both because of the victims used to produce the pornography and because possession of child pornography is so often associated with actually molesting children,” U.S. Attorney Tom Moss said.  “But when it’s a teacher, it’s especially disturbing.  Mr. Neil was put in a position of trust to look out for our children, and he broke that trust. I hope anyone with information about his illegal activities will come forward.”

The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security - Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Boise Police Department assisted ICE with the search.