Former north Texas high school teacher admits producing child pornography

FORT WORTH, Texas — A former north Texas high school teacher pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal child pornography charges, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

Gregory Bogomol, 38, of Fort Worth and a former teacher at Denton (Texas) High School, appeared Oct. 15 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton and pleaded guilty to an indictment charging two counts of producing child pornography. Each count carries a statutory penalty of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of 30 years in federal prison, and up to a lifetime of supervised release. Bogomol has been in custody since May 2014 on charges outlined in a related federal criminal complaint.  He resigned from his position with the Denton Independent School District the week prior to his arrest. Sentencing is set for Feb. 12 before U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means.

According to documents filed in this case, the investigation began when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was contacted by the parents of a 15-year-old male victim regarding an individual who solicited a nude photograph of the minor through a smartphone application.

Specifically, according to the factual resume, Bogomol used social media applications such as KIK, Grindr, and Pinger to initiate conversations with underage males. Bogomol posed as a minor female and sent nude images of females to entice the boys to produce sexually explicit pictures.

After Bogomol received an image from the minor male, Bogomol made additional explicit demands. If the minor male did not comply with his demands, Bogomol threatened to send sexually explicit pictures of the boy to the boy's friends via social media applications.

On April 20, 2014, Bogomol coerced one minor victim to send a sexually explicit image of himself.  A few days later, Bogomol coerced another minor victim to send a sexually explicit image of himself.

Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem, Northern District of Texas, is prosecuting this case.

This investigation was conducted under HSI's Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 10,000 individuals for crimes against children, including producing and distributing online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking children. In fiscal year 2013, more than 2,000 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI's Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.

HSI is a founding member and current chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.