Federal court declines appeal from former CMS teacher who downloaded child pornography
A former Charlotte elementary school teacher who downloaded and transported child pornography asked the courts to grant him some leeway on his release conditions, and was told no last week.
Former Polo Ridge Elementary teacher Timothy Scott Olson pleaded guilty to the charges in 2019. Olson later tried and failed to withdraw that guilty plea.
Olson is serving 120 months in prison, followed by a 30-year term of supervised release.
This month, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in on his release conditions.
The court found in an Aug. 20 opinion that six of Olson’s supervised release conditions, which he challenged, weren’t unreasonable:
He is not allowed to talk to or interact with anyone “engaged in criminal activity” or charged with a felony unless his probation officer gives permission. In defending the condition, the circuit judges noted that Olson used peer-to-peer software to download the pornography, meaning he shared it with others. “Olson needs to be prevented from returning to communal criminal activity,” the judges wrote. “This condition targets the interactions necessary for such activity.”
He will still have to refrain from “excessive” alcohol use, something he contended was a vague order.
And he will have to submit to substance abuse testing and treatment if told to.
Olson objected to searches on himself and his property without a warrant or suspicion. But child pornography is a “difficult to detect” crime, the judges wrote, necessitating such searches.
The judges again said that he cannot loiter within 100 feet of parks, schools property, playgrounds, arcades, amusement parks or a number of other places that are “primarily used or can reasonably be expected to be used” by children without a probation officer’s approval.
He cannot possess children’s items — including clothing, toys and games — without a probation officer’s approval. His crime was “intrinsically related” to sexually abusing children, and he has a history of “seeking roles” that keep him close to children, the judges wrote.