Former Ballston Spa teacher gets 5 years on child porn charge

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

At a sentencing that revealed new and even more troubling details about the case, a former Ballston Spa elementary school teacher was ordered Wednesday to serve more than five years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

In sentencing Timothy Brehmer, 35, of Broadalbin, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe referenced the harm caused to children depicted in the pornographic images Brehmer downloaded from the Internet, but also spoke of images Brehmer possessed of his own students. Prosecutor Richard Belliss clarified later the images were still photos of the students apparently taken during the course of the school day. The students were fully clothed, Belliss said, but the photos were focused on particular areas of their bodies.

Ballston Spa schools spokesman Stuart Williams said Wednesday afternoon that investigators notified the district last spring of the student photos found on Brehmer’s computer, but the information did not call for further notification of parents beyond that done after Brehmer’s arrest.

Brehmer was arrested in December 2011 after federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators visited his home on Third Avenue in Broadalbin and found dozens of pornographic still images and video files of children on his computer.

He was immediately suspended from his job in the Ballston Spa Central School District after his arrest and barred from school property. His guilty plea in June also carried the agreement that he surrender his teaching license and resign from the district.

Brehmer was also a member of the adjunct music staff at Schenectady County Community College, but he was dismissed immediately after his arrest.