The recent arrests of a teacher and janitor from two Atlanta-area private schools on child pornography charges likely came as a shock to the two communities. But the arrests came as the result of a U.S. Postal Service investigation that began in 2010 into a Canada-based movie company, according to federal court documents.
Josh Ensley, of Tucker, and William Villemez, of Smyrna, probably don’t know each other. But each allegedly purchased hundreds of dollars worth of DVDs portraying child pornography from the same company, which then shipped them through the postal service to New York and then on to Tennessee, documents state.
Federal and foreign investigators searched the movie company in May 2011, uncovering hundreds of DVDs and computers.
“Based upon a review of the recovered printed records, which included shipping labels along with the business computers which were seized, USPIS [postal service investigators] and foreign law enforcement found that these movies and photo DVDs were being shipped to customers who ordered them,” two separate cases filed in U.S. District court state.
Examining company records and then IP addresses led investigators to those responsible for ordering the illicit material, including two suspects at separate area schools.
On Oct. 25, investigators executed a search warrant at the DeKalb County home of Ensley, a former Paideia School janitor, according to court records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. School officials learned of Ensley’s arrest the same day and fired the longtime worker at the DeKalb County school.
Four days later, investigators executed a search warrant at the Cobb County home of a Pace Academy teacher, documents show. Villemez, of Smyrna, taught fine arts at the school for the past seven years, but was fired on Oct. 29, the day he was arrested, according to headmaster Fred Assaf.
Villemez was later released after posting $40,000 bond, but Ensley remains in federal custody. Villemez allegedly ordered 32 DVDs totalling more than $750, investigators contend.
In addition to allegedly spending more than $1,300 on at least 50 DVDs, Ensley told investigators that he used tiny cameras to record boys and girls in the restrooms at Paideia.
“Josh Ensley said he would hide the camera in a hollowed air freshener and place it by the boys’ urinal and on a broom handle in the girls’ handicapped bathroom stall,” the criminal complaint against him states.
Paideia School leaders told parents in an Oct. 25 letter that investigators do not believe Ensley had any physical contact with students or other children.
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