Lynwood Teachers Gets 6 1/2 Year for Child Porn

Sad, sad, sad........We never wish bad things to happen to people. But, as a teacher, this guy should have known he was doing wrong and should have searched for help.

A former first-grade teacher at Lynwood’s Lincoln Elementary School was
sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison Monday for possessing child
pornography.Kenneth Edward Kothe, 61, of Alhambra, was also ordered by U.S.
District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper to serve 10 years of supervised release — a
form of probation — after he is released from prison and to register with law
enforcement as a sex offender for the rest of his life.Kothe also cannot teach
children again unless he gets permission from a court or his probation officer.
Kothe pleaded guilty April 21 to one felony count of possession of child
pornography. Cooper set a self-surrender date of Aug. 11Kothe was arrested Nov.
28 in connection with a federal Internet child porn probe. Federal agents took
him into custody as he was leaving for work, prosecutors said.At the time of his
arrest, Kothe had stored at least 114 image files and 13 video files of child
pornography on his computer’s external hard drive, court documents state. Agents
also seized two bins full of child porn images Kothe had printed after
downloading them on his computer, as well as approximately four ounces of
marijuana, prosecutors said.During an interview with agents, Kothe admitted to
downloading and printing the images and paying for child pornography, which was
“entertainment to him, like a video game,” court papers state.Kothe stored the
sexually explicit images on a file folder labeled “XXX,” prosecutors
said.Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Dugdale said after Monday’s hearing that one
of the images Kothe possessed showed an infant being raped.Attempts to reach
Michael Berry, Kothe’s attorney, were unsuccessful.Berry appeared in court
Monday on behalf of Kothe, Dugdale said.The State Bar of California suspended
Berry July 1 for failure to pay bar member fees. Dugdale only learned of Berry’s
suspension following Monday’s hearing.