KINGMAN — A former Kingman Unified School District educator was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty in a child pornography case. Allen Long’s employment as a third-grade teacher at Cerbat Elementary school ended quickly following his arrest last November.
Long, 29, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts reduced to attempted sexual exploitation of a minor. Deputy Mohave County attorney Karolina Czaplinska told Judge Doug Camacho that Long is a more serious offender than the many men caught downloading sexual abuse children’s material online.
Czaplinksa explained that Long used a social media application to communicate with children to encourage them to take sexually exhibitive images of themselves and send them to him. She said Long further exacerbated the criminal activity by uploading and sharing the child pornography with others.
“What is particularly shocking is that a teacher did this,” Czaplinska said. She said getting 11 and 12 year-old children from other states to produce and send child pornography to him was a betrayal of trust that the public places with teachers involved with minors.
“What I did was inexcusable and I take full responsibility for my actions,” Long told the Court. “I will spend the rest of my life dealing with the consequences.”
Long, his lawyer and family members noted that the defendant loved teaching kids and recognizes he’ll no longer be allowed to do so. Defense attorney Matthew Bartz said Long suffered various abuse as a child that resulted in mental health damage and a downward spiral that led him to the child pornography arena.
Judge Camacho ordered a 17-year prison term, followed by lifetime probation, including required compliance with sex offender registration protocols.
