Several Kansas City-area teachers accused of child exploitation

As Kansas City-area schools start back up, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri has released information about five school staff who have been charged with child exploitation crimes.  

“When parents send their children to school, they do so with the expectation that their children are in the care of trusted adults,” U.S. Attorney R. Matthew Price said. “They should never have to question whether a teacher, school administrator, or coach, is exploiting or putting their child at risk.”

Matthew Wick

Matthew Wick, 35, is a guidance counselor at Raytown South Middle School who is accused of having over 55 videos of child pornography in his possession. Wick allegedly uploaded the pornographic videos to his cloud storage, and his phone provider submitted several cyber tip reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Wick was charged Tuesday with one count of possession of child pornography.

Caleb Eyde

Caleb Eyde, 21, a substitute elementary teacher for the Independence, Missouri, School District, allegedly distributed, traded and purchased child pornography on Discord, a social media platform.

Investigators discovered Eyde’s involvement with child pornography after Discord submitted several reports of inappropriate content being uploaded from two accounts that were traced back to Eyde. His devices had images and videos of child pornography saved to them, the investigation revealed.

Eyde was charged Tuesday with four counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Joel Rosales

Joel Rosales, 44, a former softball coach in Oak Grove, Missouri, is accused of having sexually explicit conversations with a minor using his cell phone. A witness discovered the conversation on the child’s cellphone and an investigation revealed Rosales had received images of child pornography from the victim.

Rosales was charged Tuesday with one count of receipt of child pornography.

Jonathan Valdez

Jonathan Valdez, 36, of Blue Springs, Missouri, was a Scouting America troop leader for several years and is accused of manipulating photos and videos to display child pornography. Valdez took photos of multiple minors who were clothed to create graphic photos of the children nude and appearing to be engaged in sexual conduct.

A witness reported seeing obscene images on the screensaver of Valdez’s smart TV and the subsequent investigation revealed child pornography images and videos of at least five different children on Valdez’s devices.

Valdez has been charged with one count of production of child obscenity and one count of possession of child obscenity involving multiple minors.

Richard Villigram

Richard Villigram, 43, a Plaza Middle School teacher, is accused of communicating with who he thought was a 15-year-old minor but was actually an undercover law enforcement officer over the course of several days.

In the messages, Villigram asked the child for pornographic images and arranged a meeting to engage in sexual acts. He also texted with someone else and graphically told them he was trying to meet with the minor for sex.

Villigram was arrested in April after he arrived at the meeting location he had arranged with the supposed minor and has been charged with one count each of attempted use of an interstate facility to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, attempted receipt of child pornography and attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor.

Warning for parents

“We entrust our educators with one of the most important responsibilities in our communities: helping shape the lives and futures of our children,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Chris Ormerod said. “We trust them to educate our students, to teach them the values of responsible citizenship, and to provide guidance and life lessons that extend far beyond the classroom.

“The vast majority of educators across this country honor that responsibility every day and we deeply commend them for their dedication and service.”