John A. Torres

Florida Today

MELBOURNE, Fla. — The Florida principal arrested last week as part of a child-porn investigation had photos of students on his home computer alongside downloaded child pornography movies, court documents said.

The photos appeared to be from a Spessard Holland Elementary School brochure, where Ricky Sheppard served as principal, according to the federal complaint used to arrest the 59-year-old.

As documented in the federal complaint, Sheppard, of Melbourne, Fla., first caught the attention of investigators when he downloaded a 3-minute 50-second video of a little boy being raped by an adult male.

Agent Michael Spadafora of the Brevard County Sheriff's office — also a task force agent with the Department of Homeland Security — initiated an investigation in May. He traced the IP address to Sheppard's home and then confirmed the longtime Brevard Public Schools employee, who also had worked for the Satellite Beach and Indialantic Police Departments in the past, was the only resident of the home.

Florida principal arrested in child-porn investigation

In mid-May agents conducted surveillance on Sheppard's home, most notably the wireless Internet connections that were available nearby. Agents noted the connections and they were all secured, meaning the only way to access them was to enter a password.

At that point a warrant was presented for Sheppard's arrest Friday. Officials interviewed Sheppard before searching his home and his computers, and asked about the images he had downloaded. He said he would not talk about that and then refused to answer questions, according to the arresting document.

Agents inspected two desktop computers in the home and found more than 1,100 files containing child pornography including 14 movies containing young boys between the ages of 8 and 12 engaging in various sexual acts with men, other minors and themselves, according to the federal complaint against Sheppard.

Broken discipline tracking systems let teachers flee troubled pasts

Sheppard was once reprimanded when he was teaching at Gemini Elementary School in 1999 for speaking inappropriately with a 6-year-old boy and showering him with gifts. He was later promoted to assistant principal at various schools before being named principal of the Satellite Beach, Fla., school last year. The district said it is changing its process for choosing new principals to ensure the superintendent sees any reprimand letters in the candidate's file. That had not been the case.

Investigators believe Sheppard may have done more than download illegal movies and images and are searching for potential local victims.

Sheppard is scheduled to have a detention hearing Wednesday in federal court in Orlando.

Follow John A. Torres on Twitter: @johnalbertorres