Federal child porn charge filed against Granger teacher

Evidence against a Granger first-grade teacher accused of making child pornography with young boys includes an illicit video in a school setting, court documents reveal.

Stephen J. Castilleja, 27, allegedly knew he had a problem over a 15-year period, but did not seek help.

Instead, he sought “employment and volunteer opportunities that placed him in a position of trust with children of the same age as those depicted in the child pornography,” documents said.

The Prosser man now is charged in U.S. District Court, in addition to two pending sexual assault cases in Benton County Superior Court.

Castilleja, a teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School, reportedly was placed on paid administrative leave by school district officials after the allegations came to light. An update on his status was not available Thursday.

He was arrested by federal marshals the morning of May 27 — about 20 hours after his family secured his release for the second time from the Benton County jail.

In a hearing later that day in the Yakima federal courthouse, Castilleja learned he’s been charged with one count of producing child pornography. The federal charge carries a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years.

On Wednesday, Magistrate Judge Mary K. Dimke ordered that Castilleja be held without bail. He is in the Yakima County jail.

She noted that even though Castilleja is only charged with one count, the scope of the allegations as argued by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laurel Holland is much broader and includes at least three known victims.

“The compulsive behavior the United States proffered, along with the brazenness of the alleged behavior against vulnerable victims, leads the court to conclude there are no conditions the court could fashion to ensure the safety of the community,” Dimke’s order said.

Castilleja was not indicted by a federal grand jury. Since he was picked up on an arrest warrant based on a criminal complaint, he faces a probable cause hearing June 10 before Dimke.

Federal and local officers searched Castilleja’s family home May 12 as part of a child porn investigation that started with the South-East Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Castilleja, who agreed to speak with officers at the Prosser Police Department, disclosed that he had “inappropriate videos” on his computer, according to the complaint written by Jeff Bickford.

Bickford is a Richland police officer who also is assigned to Homeland Security Investigations.

Castilleja said he had been a teacher with Granger for about 2  1/2 years. He previously was employed by the Prosser School District from 2009 to 2014, and also had served as a mentor with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties in the Prosser branch, he said.

He told investigators “he was very embarrassed to talk about the videos and he felt he might lose a lot of his life over the videos,” Bickford wrote. “Castilleja offered that he felt all of the things that made him happy, such as teaching and mentoring, were all going to go away as a result of his talking about his videos.”

Castilleja further told investigators that unfortunately for him, the ages of the kids with whom he works are in the same age range as the minors in the videos he is interested in and has viewed.

He “estimated that he viewed child pornography about 10 to 15 minutes per day when at his worst, and that he could not bring himself to delete what he had collected,” the complaint said.

Castilleja also admitted taking pictures of the genitalia of two young boys, saying he had less than 20 pictures that he had taken more than five years prior, the complaint said.

After investigators confronted Castilleja about a January 2013 video found on an external hard drive in his bedroom, he allegedly said he made it using an old cellphone and that they would discover more pictures of the boy.

Castilleja is charged in Superior Court with first-degree child molestation, sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of first-degree rape of a child. The exploitation charge may be dropped as a result of the federal case.

The charges involve two young boys and acts that allegedly happened years ago.

This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Federal child porn charge filed against Granger teacher."