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Chester County Press

Downingtown teacher arrested for child pornography and unlawful contact with student

02/09/2016 12:10PM ● By Steven Hoffman

The Chester County District Attorney's Office and the Downingtown Borough Police Department announced today the arrest of Brandon Keith Mitchell for unlawful contact with a minor, child pornography, endangering the welfare of children, and corruption of minors after he allegedly engaged in numerous sexually explicit solicitations and conversations with one of his students.

Mitchell, 30, of West Chester, was a chemistry teacher at Downingtown West High School from Nov. 30, 2010 to April 16, 2015 when he was suspended as a result of the investigation. He subsequently resigned from the teaching position at the high school.

According to the Chester County District Attorney's Office, Mitchell exchanged text messages with a 16-year-old student, who was a junior at the high school at the time. He allegedly solicited the victim to send him nude photographs of herself. She sent Mitchell approximately ten nude photographs and one sexually explicit video, while he sent her twenty nude photographs of himself.

Police searched Mitchell's electronic dvices and phone records, revealing more than 12,000 text messages with the victim. Police were able to recover hundreds of sexcually explicit text messages, several nude images of the victim, and a sexually explicit video of the victim.

Mitchell was arrested on Feb. 3 and his bail was set at $50,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Wednesday, March 9 at the District Court in Downingtown.

Charles Gaza, the District Attorney Cheif of Staff said, “The defendant used his position of trust and authority to engage in serious misconduct with a student. As always in cases like this, where a teacher had access to hundreds of students over multiple years, the authorities are concerned that there may be other victims out there.”