The number of victims continues to grow in a federal investigation involving child pornography and exploitation at San Jose's Valley Christian High School.
Investigators now believe as many as five teenage boys were victims of Todd Baldwin, the school's former director of operations as well as teaching assistant and school coach.
Court documents show Baldwin, 44, admitted to San Jose police that he received pornographic images and videos from four male students and sold them online. That confession came after he was arrested in August 2023.
But an FBI investigation claims there's at least one more victim.
The documents allege that, starting in October 2022, Baldwin made a deal with a 17-year-old at Valley Christian and a 16-year-old at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, convincing them to film and photograph themselves for pornographic purposes and send him the files over Snapchat and email. Investigators claim Baldwin then sold their content online and paid the students over Venmo and Cash App. Investigators found payments to students totaling more than $6,000.
"Once somebody's image, a child's image, is out on the internet, it's out there forever, and the child is going to suffer continuing damage forever," legal analyst Dean Johnson said. "These cases are treated very seriously and prosecuted relentlessly, and the consequences of being convicted are extremely serious."
According to the criminal complaint, Baldwin filmed at least one of the students in his office on school grounds.
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San Jose attorney Lauren Cerri, who represented survivors of child sexual abuse in schools, including a prior case involving Valley Christian's former basketball coach, wonders what responsibility Valley Christian bears in this case.
"What did they know? What should they have known if they were properly supervising their employee and the students entrusted to their care?" she said.
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Cerri and investigators are urging anyone with information to come forward to investigators so that all victims are known and receive justice.
