Updated at 1:51 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A Tenino Elementary School teacher who is also a Boy Scout volunteer was arrested yesterday for possession of child pornography.
James D. Mobley, 46, came under investigation as authorities examined the records of an international company that distributed child porn through the mail, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Authorities allegedly discovered that Mobley purchased materials from the company on multiple occasions between February of 2009 and January of 2011, according to a news release today.
Mobley is described by federal authorities as a fourth grade teacher who is also a private tutor and active as a volunteer with Boy Scouts.
Any parents who are concerned about any contact he may have had with their children are being asked to call the Tenino Police Department.
In a search of Mobley’s Tenino home yesterday, law enforcement seized a computer hard drive and also DVDs containing child porn, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Emily Langlie.
Mobley is being held at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac pending a detention hearing. He is charged in federal court with possession of child pornography.
The case is being handled by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Tenino police.
The international company which sold the images is not named in the criminal complaint against Mobley, but it was almost two years ago when an unspecified foreign law enforcement agency searched the business and seized hundreds of child porn DVDs and business records, according to Langlie.