A former Homer-Center school district teacher will serve up to 14 years of probation for possession of child pornography.
33-year-old Charles Kirkland of Derry Township pleaded guilty in September to two felony child pornography counts, while charges of dissemination of images of child sex acts and criminal use of a computer were dismissed. A state police investigation in December of 2022 turned up as many as nine illicit images of children on his home computer. He resigned following his arrest.
In Westmoreland County Court on Monday, assistant District Attorney Cassidy Hatten asked for standard sentencing guidelines of three to 12 months in jail. Kirkland told Judge Christopher Feliciani that since his arrest, he has been in sex offender treatment. Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani said that because of his actions post-arrest and that he has no prior criminal record, jail time was not warranted.
For each count of child pornography possession, Kirkland was sentenced to seven years of probation, which will run consecutively. Feliciani also said that he will reduce Kirkland’s probation by half if there are no violations within the first seven years of his sentence. Kirkland must continue his sex offender and mental health therapy and register as a sex offender for the next 15 years.
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