Breaking News - Posted: 12/12/06

Gieser pleads guilty to child porn charges

By David Heiller
Argus News Editor

A former Caledonia Elementary School teacher pled guilty on December 11 to three charges related to child pornography.

Craig Allen Gieser, 49, entered guilty pleas to one count of dissemination of pornographic work involving minors and two counts of possession of pornographic work involving minors.

He faces a stayed prison sentence of 39 months in prison and up to 12 years of probation as part of a plea agreement with Houston County. His probation will likely include a local jail sentence, a fine, and a psychosexual evaluation, according to county attorney Rick Jackson.

Gieser will also have to register as a predatory offender, and will not be allowed to have unsupervised contact with minors, Jackson said.

Gieser was charged with the crimes on May 3, 2005, but his sentence will follow new guidelines that went into place on August 1, 2006, Jackson said. The two possession counts will be served consecutively and not concurrently. That means that the prison sentence if Gieser should violate the conditions would be 39 months and not 24 months, Jackson said.

Gieser will also voluntarily relinquish his teaching license, and will not teach minors again, Jackson added.

Sentencing is set for Monday, February 26 at 10 a.m. in Third District Court in Caledonia.

About the case

Local authorities were alerted to Gieserís crimes after an undercover detective in New Hampshire, posing as a 14-year-old boy in an internet chatroom, attracted his attention. A person using the internet name cgiese1010 asked the ìboyî for pictures, and the detective sent pictures of himself as a 14-year-old. In return, Gieser sent photos of a sexually explicit nature featuring what appeared to be a teenaged boy.

Gieser and the detective exchanged sexually explicit messages, and Gieser continued to send images of children engaged in sexual activity.

There were no images of children from Caledonia Elementary School, where Gieser taught music for 26 years. He resigned from teaching shortly after he was charged.