Ten years before preschool teacher David Moe was arrested on charges of child porn, he was accused of inappropriately touching a 3-year-old at Paddington Station Preschool and the school never reported it to authorities, court filings show.
Moe, 45, had been a teacher at Paddington Station Preschool for 18 years of the school's 19-year history, though he resigned last Thursday.
According to a federal criminal complaint, an undercover law enforcement agent observed child pornography available for downloading on another computer using peer-to-peer software to share files. Law enforcement obtained and exercised a search warrant last week and Moe, who was the sole occupant of the residence, was arrested.
In addition, the complaint--citing handwritten notes found at Moe's home-- said there has been at least one allegation of inappropriate contact with a child 10 years ago, but nothing was ever proven. According to the notes, Moe was accused of taking a 3-year-old girl to the bathroom and touching her inappropriately.
The notes were taken during a meeting with the girl's parents, and a Paddington Station spokesperson has since acknowledged that the incident was never reported to authorities.
In addition, an attorney who is representing three families who've had children attend Paddington Station has reportedly revealed that a top administrator at the school is close friends with Moe's family.
Since the incident took place, the school allegedly made a new rule that only females could change diapers and that two adults would accompany a child to the bathroom, but parents say these rules weren't really enforced.
Since Moe's arrest, Paddington Station founder Pippa Hambidge has stepped down as the school's director but remains on the three-member board.
An affidavit on file at the U.S. District Court in Denver says Moe has admitted that he used a computer program to collect and share images of child pornography.
"Moe stated that he has lots of sexually explicit images, approximately 10,000, and estimates that 2 percent depict children under the age of 18. Mr. Moe's preference is to look at sexually explicit images depicting females ages four and older," reads the affidavit.
The images, along with more than 400 CD's found in Moe's home are being investigated further to determine whether he produced any of the images himself.
However Paddington Station has recently come under fire for releasing a premature statement to parents that prosecutors "have no reason to believe that he ever produced the images" or that they concerned any Paddington students.
Federal spokesman Jeff Dorschner told 9News that that's just not true.
"Computer forensic analysts have a substantial amount of media to review. At this point it is very early in their investigation and we do not know what the content is on that media," Dorschner said.
In response, Paddington Station posted a message to parents on their website:
We are aware of and sensitive to the criticism that so many of our parents have felt in regards to our response to this incident, and we want you to know we have been working as quickly as possible to address your suggestions and requests.
The school hosted a community meeting last Friday to address parents, but many just came away feeling angry.
“Ten years ago, Moe was on the carpet after a child said he took her to the bathroom and touched her inappropriately,” a parent who didn't want to be named told KDVR. “The school said they were going to put new policies in place to safeguard the kids, but they never did.”