The education director for Marin County's California Film Institute was arrested in San Francisco this week, following a five-month child porn investigation.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, the home of 71-year-old John Morrison was searched Monday, the culmination of a probe into "an individual who was uploading and trading graphic child pornography through a chat messenger application that began in November, 2016."
SFPD says that their Internet Crimes Against Children Unit tracked the uploads to a residence on the first block of Newton Street, in the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood.
On Monday, police "executed a search warrant at that residence," where they say they found "numerous media devices" that "contained hundreds of child pornography videos and images depicting minors engaged in sexual acts with adults." The owner of those devices, they say, was Morrison, whom they arrested "when he arrived at his residence after the search warrant was served."
Police say that Morrison taught film production and screening classes to young children in Marin County. The Chron reports that Morrison "worked in several programs related to young people" and was "acting as the education director for the California Film Institute" at the time of his arrest.
The SFPD says that "the investigation into Morrison's involvement in children programs is on-going," and asks that anyone who believes they have had suspicious contact with Morrison to contact their Special Victims Unit at (415) 558-5500.
Speaking with the Chron Thursday, CFI founder and Executive Director Mark Fishkin says that “We just learned of these very disturbing allegations today...We take this issue extremely seriously and are in the process of gathering all the facts related to the matter. Mr. Morrison is no longer an employee at CFI. We have not received any requests for information from law enforcement about this investigation, but if we do we will, of course, cooperate fully.”
Morrison was booked into San Francisco County Jail for possession of child pornography, possession of over 600 files of child pornography, and distribution of child pornography. Bay City News reports that those files include "more than 10 depicting children under the age of 12 and some depicting acts of sexual sadism or masochism."
According to a spokesperson with the San Francisco Sheriff's Office, Morrison has since been released on his own recognizance. He is expected to be arraigned in SF Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. Friday.
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