Newton Teacher Had 1,000s of Pornographic Photos on Computers

A judge set bail at $35,000 for Newton teacher Steven Chan, who was charged with having images of child pornography on his computer and sending them out to a file sharing network.

Massachusetts State Police and Newton Police arrested Chan after receiving a search warrant for nude photos of children under 18. The photos found on a file-sharing network were found to have come from a computer at Chan’s house in Newton, Middlesex prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said at a bail hearing at Newton District Court on Friday morning.

Chan, who lives in Newton, faces two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of disseminating child pornography.

Police found tens of thousands of pornographic images – some of which were of children under 18 - on personal computers, external hard drives, zip drives, as well as DVDs and video tapes of pornography, Fitzgerald said. None of the photos were of students in the Newton schools or were produced by Chan, Fitzgerald said.

Prosecutors asked for a $50,000 bail for Chan, saying that because he has been released from his job as a math teacher at F.A. Day Middle School in Newton he is a flight risk. He was also released from being coach of the boys gymnastics team at Newton North High School.

Attorney Christopher Shannon, who represented Chan at the bail hearing, said that the Bit Torrent file sharing software used by Chan to download the files automatically rebroadcast the files to the network.

Shannon asked for a $10,000 bail be set, saying that Chan owns a home in Newton with his wife, and he has two sons – one 19 and one 23 – so he would not be a flight risk.

Judge Antionette Leone set bail at $35,000 and said that he must wear a GPS monitor. Chan also is banned from being within 50 yards of a Newton school, cannot work or volunteer with children, cannot be alone and unsupervised with children, and must report to probation within 24 hours of his release.

He will be back in court for a pre-trial hearing on Oct. 8.