The Rogersville Review reports Michael Eugene Noel, former teacher and head basketball coach at Clinch School in Hawkins County,entered into a plea agreement on a federal child pornography charge and a charge of attempting to destroy evidence.
A hearing was scheduled by U. S. District Court Judge Ronnie Greer earlier this morning to consider the plea agreement, which was signed Monday by Noel, his attorney, Richard Spivey, and Assistant U. S. Attorney Helen C. T. Smith.
Noel was indicted in February on a charge of receiving child pornography from March 2006 until June 2007.
Under the terms of the plea agreement a second count alleging he possessed the pornography will be dismissed.
The agreement also includes a guilty plea to the third count of the federal indictment claimed from June 20, 2007 until June 28, 2007 Noel “did corruptly obstruct and impede, or endeavor to influence, obstruct and impede” the criminal case “by damaging and attempting to destroy two CPU towers and computer accessories, all of which was evidence of crime, and by concealing other evidence of crime.”
According to court records, authorities found 110 videos containing child pornography on two computers owned by Noel. Federal authorities said 58 of the videos were more than five minutes long and the videos depicted child bondage and children engaged in sadomasochistic sexually explicit conduct Authorities also reported finding 1,074 still images classified as child pornography.
Noel faces a punishment of not less than five years and not more than twenty years imprisonment on the receipt of child pornography charge; and a maximum of ten years imprisonment on the charge of impeding the due administration of justice, as well as fines of $250,000 on each count and supervised release for up to life.
In separate charges in the Second Judicial District of the State of Tennessee, District Attorney Greeley Wells charged Noel with four felony counts, including sexual battery, aggravated sexual battery, solicitation of sexual exploitation of a minor, and attempted especially aggravated exploitation of a minor in violation of Tennessee law.
Now, let’s review;
He’s guilty of receiving child pornography 3/06-6/07.
He’s guilty of attempting to destroy evidence between 6/07-7/07.
He is not guilty of possessing the child pornography at any time from 3/06-7/07 — even during the period when he was attempting to destroy the material.
(UPDATE: More on the Kingsport charges at the Times-News.)
I guess they don’t know the exact date he destroyed the computer? Or tried to destroy it since it seems like they recovered all the pictures and videos according to the article.
I wish they would give us some age range on these things. Were these pictures of naked 17 year old cheerleaders, or were they videos of 3 year olds being raped? There is a very large difference between the two.
Deborah, I’ve included a link to the Kingsport Times-News, which has more info on the destruction of evidence:
“Court records state after Noel agreed to meet Adkins at his home to receive the arrest warrant, Noel removed from his home the two computers and two hard drives containing the child pornography images, disconnected the Internet cables for the computers, and stored the equipment with a friend who had no knowledge of the contents of the computers and hard drives.
Prosecutors say Noel also defaced one of the computers and attempted to disable or destroy it by hitting it with a hammer. Because of these actions, federal prosecutors charged him with obstruction of justice.”
Considering the charges he faces in Sullivan County and the the plea he’s entered in US District Court: I imagine he’s looking at a long stay in prison – with or without the “possession” charge.
OK, so they do know the exact date he destroyed the computer. Maybe they just put a date range on charges like that just in case there was some destruction they didn’t know about.
I read more carefully about the nature of the images some which were “child bondage”.
I ended up having an awful nightmare last night about my kids telling me some teacher was abusing them. I woke up nauseous and crying. I had to throw up it was so upsetting. It sounds like this guy was into very nasty things. I am sure the parents of his students are having their own nightmares wondering if there was something other than images that this man was into.
I think when I read these articles my first thought is “It can’t possibly be what this article seems to be implying.”
I wish there would be a better definition of words like ‘child’ in terms of an age range. I know what it sounds like – someone 3-11 years old. But legally, a photo of a nude 17 yr old is technically child pornography as well.
I know that prosecutors or the media will sometimes make things seem more serious than they are in order to get the public riled up about crime. For example, the various cases in some states where some 18 yr old is charged for statutory rape with a 16 or 17 yr old girlfriend and sent to prison, while some elderly female teacher with a 13 yr old boy just gets a slap on the wrist. This has led to me being initially skeptical of many of these claims without knowing the ages of both parties. Not saying that there shouldn’t be consequences, but 18 and 16 yr old schoolmates together voluntarily I understand and don’t think anyone needs to have a permanent record as a sex offender for that. Most of us have a grandma or great grandma or aunt that got married at 16.
A 45 yr old authority figure like a teacher with a 12 year old student has severe mental problems and the public does need to be warned about them.
This is a digression though since we’re talking about something else completely different, we’re talking about child porn.
Where does this stuff even come from? Overseas? It is disgusting or horrible that it even exists. It’s not even the pictures, it’s the fact that the children were abused in these ways. I guess we may never find out who produces these materials, so the idea is to destroy the market for them by severely prosecuting the perverts who use such things, who presumably are a threat to the public because of their interest in these things.
Even thinking about this is upsetting me now. I heard about a detective who had to look at images who had a nervous breakdown.
Perhaps the rumors of the bad treatment of these sorts of people by other prisoners in prison are true. If so, I suppose that is some sort of justice.
I read the Review article again. Yes, he did assault male students who he coached and he had a habit of bringing them over for sleepovers at his house.
Are sleepovers at coach or teachers house ever legitimate? We only hear about them when their is a sex assault.
When I was in high school, I had lunch a few times at a teachers house who I was friends with, along with other students. There was nothing more to it, it was completely on the up and up. I remember that there was one girl, a really smart girl, whose mother had issues and had thrown her out. The same teacher let the girl stay in her guest room for a year while the girl worked to support herself long enough to graduate high school. The mom was OK with this arrangement. There are students who are good kids and their parents have issues and a teacher can really save the day in some situations. But there are other situations like this one.
There is one other person I know about in our area who has a lot of sleepovers with teen boys. I’m not the only person concerned – people have talked to this guy about doing this and told him it doesn’t look good for him to be doing this. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but it’s hard not to when you hear about these sorts of things.
Yes, these sleepovers can be legitimate and it did not raise any eyebrows at the time because the practice is not uncommon in this area. In fact, I attended many sleepovers or similar events at the homes of teachers’ in my day.
I think the reason these activities have always been approved and considered acceptable is due to the poverty level and how this limits students’ opportunities. You know, many children in Hawkins Co. lack the funds, resources and support necessary to participate in sports or other extracurricular activities. Consequently, our teachers have always been willing to step-in as far as transportation, lodging, scholarships and assistance goes – most for all the right reasons.
However, this is rapidly changing because of cases, such as Noels. Most teachers are no longer willing to place themselves in a situation where allegations could be made or rumors started. I don’t blame them. Honestly, I don’t see how the school board could get around eliminating or placing some heavy restrictions on all activities off school grounds.
And while I think, absolutely protecting our children is the first priority: I also believe this will create obstacles in grossly impoverished areas as Clinch — and that’s probably something we’ll have to address on down the line.