Teacher caught taking photos of children in theater bathroom led to the arrest of second teacher, police say

A man who was caught taking photos of children in a movie theater bathroom was discovered to be a middle school teacher, according to Virginia police.

Colonial Heights Police said they were called to the Regal Cinemas at Southpark Mall on July 22 on a report that a man was taking the photos of children. Shaun Jason Adams, 49, was arrested for child pornography after police viewed material on his phone.

Court documents said they messaged each other about sexually abusing children in their care.

Police said they found a “thread of sexually explicit messages about children” from the data on the phone, and that information led to the arrest of 33-year-old Richard Franklin Troshak III of Chesterfield County.

“Once, of course, we look at a phone, you start leading to where people have sent messages, sent pictures, and those are the ones that led to the other investigation,” said Gray Collins, attorney for the commonwealth of Colonial Heights.

Court documents said they messaged each other about sexually abusing children in their care.

Adams faces 25 counts of felony manufacturing of child pornography and five felony counts of indecent liberties with a child, while Troshak faces eight counts of felony manufacturing of child pornography and two felony counts of indecent liberties with a child.

Both Adams and Troshak worked for Chesterfield County Schools, the former for Elizabeth Davis Middle School and the latter for the Chesterfield Early Childhood Learning Academy.

Police said Troshak was arrested at the learning academy without incident.

Chesterfield Superintendent Dr. John Murray said he immediately ordered both to be terminated from the district.

The investigation also found that both men had previously worked at the Tuckaway day care. At least one message referenced abuse at the day care.

RELATED: Missing 12-year-old was killed by alligators — and records show horrific prior conviction against his mother

Petersburg Police Deputy Chief Emanuel Chambliss said a third investigation has opened up where Adams lived.

“If they recognize the teacher involved and suspect he might be involved in any activity here in the city, please contact us,” he said.

WRIC-TV reported that Troshak has been named the “Overall CCPS Beginning Teacher of the Year” just months before his arrest. The learning academy’s principal and assistant principal were placed on administrative leave, according to WRIC.

Collins went on to say that many times, victims and witnesses don’t want to come forward in these kinds of cases.

“Even if you don’t want to come forward in court, we still need to hear your story so we can make sure that this doesn’t happened again to other people,” he continued.

“We’ve done initial meetings with parents without the children present so we can go over the facts of what we’ve heard, what we know, and then they can make a more informed decision if they want to actually try to keep going forward with the charges,” Collins added.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!