Valley teacher arrested on child pornography charges now free

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A local teacher arrested on child pornography charges nearly six years ago is now a free man.

Gregory Carr only spent one day in jail before being released on bail.

He will not spend any more time in custody after pleading to a misdemeanor charge of possession of child pornography.

The former Caruthers Elementary school teacher and Fresno church volunteer was arrested back in 2016 after deputies found images of young girls on at least one of his computers.

"The issue that we we're addressing today was bringing proof to the court that he's been in treatment since this incident occurred. He's got about five and a half years of treatment for both sexual addiction and any alcohol related events," said Carr's attorney, Chuck Magill.

At the time of his arrest, Carr served as a junior high instructor at Caruthers Elementary and had been with the school district for more than two decades.

During the investigation, Swiss authorities notified Fresno County deputies after getting a hit on a computer that belonged to Carr.

In a search of his home, several computers were taken, including at least one old computer that Carr had purchased from the district.

Magill has maintained all along that it would be too difficult to prove where the images came from since his client buys all his computers second-hand.

"The computers that were taken were computers that he had purchased, so there was a good argument that what was on those computers was there before he had them and the people couldn't disprove that," he said.

By pleading to a misdemeanor, Carr will serve one year of probation and register as a sex offender, but the registration requirement could be dropped in the future.

"Since he plead to the misdemeanor, it allows him to petition after 10 years of being on registration to no long have to register. The way the law is, assuming you have no new offenses during that 10-year period, it's almost automatically granted after 10 years."

Carr is a free man now as part of his plea agreement but if he's found with child pornography again, it will result in automatic jail time.