Teacher Accused of Using AI to Create Child Porn Makes Stunning Decision

Big development in the case of the. teacher who used AI [music] to create. sexually explicit content of his teenage. students. He just made a decision that. has changed the trajectory of this whole. story. We are going to go through this. case piece by [music] piece and what. this decision means. Welcome to Sidebar. presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse. Weber. Okay, so before we jump into all this, can you believe that the holidays are. here? It's like, weren't we just in. summer? Anyway, if you're thinking about. gifts, I gotta tell you about Cozy.

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stack my code, Long Crime, on top of. their sitewide sale for up to 40% off. So wrap the ones you love in luxury with. Cozy Earth. So if you've been watching. us here on Sidebar for a bit, you might. remember this shocking case out of. Corinth, Mississippi. This is where a. middle school teacher was accused of. using artificial intelligence, AI, to. create explicit videos of his own. students. Shocking, right? Shocking. But. I mean, this is the new potential. reality we live in. Well, here's the. thing. We got a major update. That.

teacher, Wilson Jones, has just made a. shocking decision that will change the. course of this case forever. Jones was. scheduled to go to court up against some. very serious federal charges. That he. possessed and produced child. pornography, that he used his. schoolisssued laptop to essentially. create obscene visual depictions of. minors, specifically AI generated. explicit material that featured the. faces of his own students. This is a. case, not surprisingly, that sparked.

outrage, especially when it was revealed. that the school superintendent allegedly. knew about this and let Jones just. quietly resign instead of immediately. reporting him to authorities. He has. been indicted, too, by the way. So, what. was the decision with respect to Jones? What are we talking about? Well, to. understand just how significant this is, you need the full story of how this all. came to light. This is a case that. involves a school monitoring system, specific AI prompts, and a monthsl long.

gap before law enforcement ever got. involved. Here's what happened. This all. started back in November 19th, 2024 at. Mississippi's Corinth Middle School. According to the complaint in this case, at 1:17 in the afternoon, a monitoring. system called the Bark app, which scans. the school district's network for. illicit content, sent out a quote severe. alert. And this was tagged as sexual and. it was coming from teacher Wilson Jones. schoolisssued computer. So the principal.

here, Chris Killow, got a text about it. He looked into it, contacted the. district's tech director, who was able. to pull three videos directly from Jones. computer. And the tech director found. out that Jones had apparently sent this. content to his personal Google Drive, which is what triggered the alert in the. first place. Now, these videos were of. students and they showed what were. described as known Corinth students. engaging in inappropriate behavior, including kissing and exposing.

themselves. But none of this was real. Because here's a key. The website used. to create these images was right there. in the file name at the bottom of the. images. It was an AI site called. Hiluo.ai. Now, the very next morning, what. happens? The principal and the vice. principal, they meet with Jones. They. had already taken his laptop. And right. there in that meeting, Jones admitted. it. He said he created videos using AI,

though he claimed they quote weren't. sexual. He confirmed he used this. website. Said he got the original images. from social media. He even acknowledged. that one of the people in the images was. a local student. But here's the thing. Talk about technology. Investigators. would later find the exact keystrokes he. typed into that AI system. The prompts. were detailed and they were very. explicit, describing, quote, "wo girls. posing in each other's arms stop to. kiss," instructing the AI to have them.

quote, "Roll up their baggy dresses to. reveal each other's picture perfect. bodies, garmentless." [snorts] Now, Jones resigned from the school just one. day after that meeting on November 21st. But here is the part that really is. controversial, aside from everything. else. This was in November. The. Mississippi Department of Education. didn't find out about this until the end. of January. And the Corinth Police. Department and the FBI didn't serve a. subpoena and seize all of the evidence, the laptops, the videos, everything.

until March 3rd of this year. So when. the FBI finally reviewed the material, they identified eight underage victims. These are kids from the school between. 14 and 16 years old. The feds concluded. that these were AI generated videos that. used the likenesses of known children. from the Corinth school district and. that evidence led to a federal. indictment setting the stage for a. dramatic courtroom battle. But now. Wilson Jones has made his choice.

So what did he do? He took a plea. Now. this wasn't just a simple guilty plea. Now the details of this agreement, they. are fascinating. They carry huge. consequences. To help break all this. down, I want to welcome back on to. Sidebar special guest, Professor Mary. Fan. She's the Jack R. McDonald Endowed. Chair at the University of Washington. School of Law, a former federal. prosecutor, expert in criminal law and. evidence. Thank you so much for coming. back here, Professor Fan. >> Pleasure. >> So, I want to start with this headline. Wilson Jones pleaded guilty to one count. of possession of child pornography. The.

indictment had two counts. The second. was for production. What's the str. strategic thinking here for both sides? Why uh agree to plead guilty to one. count, not the other? >> Sure. It's a very common practice for uh. defendants to get what we call charge. bargains. A charge bargain is the. prosecutor controls what charges to. bring and as a sweetener to get somebody. to plead guilty and spare people a. trial, the cost, the expense, and having. their images potentially aired uh to uh.

others. Um the prosecu the government. may agree to dismiss one or more charges. and have uh the defendant plea to one. charge as you see here. >> and the penalty is severe. I mean, the. penalties he's now facing for this. single possession count, again, let's. look at the document. So, the plea. agreement states that he faces, and I'm. quoting this directly, maximum possible. penalties of not more than 10 years. incarceration, not less than 5 years, and not more than life supervised.

released, not more than a $250,000 fine, an additional assessment of $5,000, a. $17,000. possession assessment, restitution as. appropriate to the victim or victims, and a mandatory special assessment of. $100. Professor Fan, what time do you. think he's going to get? you know, I'd. have to know his criminal history uh. because what the the actual time that. people get uh depends on any prior. history that they may have. So, we uh. calculate the actual range uh based on.

factors like where they on probation and. parole as the applicable sentencing. guidelines range for the offense. So you. often will see very high statutory. maximums for uh an offense that are. theoretically possible, but the actual. range is going to be based on a. recommended guidelines range. The life. supervised release, the uh the. requirement that has to register as a a. sex offender. Um I mean, let's just go. there. The document is very clear. It. says the defendant is required to. register as a sex offender. keep the. registration current in each.

jurisdiction where the defendant resides. or where the defendant is an employee. and where the defendant is a student. pursuant to the sex offender. registration and notification act. So to. register as a sex a sex offender maybe. supervised release. What does that mean. for him? What does a life look like. there? >> I mean sex offender registration is is. is. our modern-day life sentence uh in terms. of just the stigma that somebody bears. for the rest of their life. that's going. to affect not just employment prospects. and certainly employment prospects for.

someone who used to be a teacher who. work with children, but also uh the. experience of being able to move into an. apartment, move into a neighborhood um. and join a community. It's going to. affect the individual for the rest of. their lives. A. >> and then there's the matter of. restitution. So the agreement says that. he agrees to quote make full restitution. to all minor victims of his offenses. and it specifically notes that. restitution is quote not limited to the. count of conviction. What is he looking.

at there? >> Other offenses may not uh be the basis. of conviction in under the plea. agreement, but there could be other. harms that are done and there could be. uh that are not actually uh within the. four corners of the plea agreement. But. the defendant's agreeing to uh address. all the harms, not just the ones that. are specific to the charge to which he. plead guilty. Now, while I have you. here, I want to get into some more of. the context of this to understand. exactly what is the evidence that led to. this plea deal because we need to rewind.

to the beginning. The criminal complaint. lays it all out. Um, so it starts with. this single digital alert. The affidavit. states that on November 19th, 2024, the. school's monitoring system, the Bark. app, triggered a, and again I'm quoting. this directly, severe alert tagged as. sexual at 117 p.m. from Wilson Jones. computer. Now, from your experience, um, that feels pretty concrete. I I would. it'd be very interesting in a in a trial. how a defense attorney would try to.

argue against something like that. It. seems like a key piece of evidence and a. direct piece of evidence, >> you know. I mean, there's always going. to be defense attorneys have to be. creative and uh there's always going to. be potential avenues uh to um challenge. especially automated alerts because, you. know, we know technology makes errors. Uh you may be familiar with um other. cases where we've used technology, automated technology to send alerts. For. example, um uh a bag of Doritos being. mistaken for a gun [clears throat] by a.

high schooler um is another is an. example that he recently hit the. headlines. So you can challenge the the. accuracy uh behind automated alerts, >> but and then the school's tech director. was able to access Joan computer, found. the source. The affidavit says frame. stated that Jones sent the content to. his personal Google Drive which. triggered the bark alert. The videos. depicted known Corinth students engaging. in inappropriate behavior including. kissing and exposing themselves. The. website used to create these images. The.

one I mentioned before was listed in the. file name at the bottom uh of the. images. As I'm listening to this and as. it's being laid out, professor, it does. make it more understandable why he would. have plead guilty here and not taken. this to trial. Am I totally off? >> I mean, absolutely. I mean, what you. have here are images. You have images of. discernable students uh that are enga. who are engaging in activity that's pres. clearly prescribed under federal uh.

child pornography statutes. Um, you. know, I mean, when you when the evidence. is so strong and you also have the. electronic trail uh that that that the. the defendant even used uh school. equipment to transmit this uh material. Um, not only is the evidence really. strong for proof beyond a reasonable. doubt, but it's also really problematic. to air before a jury to see what to see. the full scope of what he's been doing. >> Yeah. And it doesn't help that he. apparently admitted that he created the.

videos using AI. It claimed it wasn't. sexual. Um, by the way, generally. speaking, this kind of case when we. first covered it, it was groundbreaking. I mean, I hadn't heard of a case like. this before, let alone a teacher using. AI to create images of the students in. these, you know, these. situations. It's kind of insane to be. thinking about, but the law is going to. be changing on this, right? I imagine. this is not the first and only case. we're going to see. It may get even.

worse. >> Absolutely. The law is changing. For. example, Colorado actually had a case uh. where uh individual actually morphed. images from a couple of of fellow. students to create uh a a simulation of. intimate activity. And uh the question. was uh does do do the existing laws. cover such AI generated material? And uh. bottom line, Colorado law um the.

Colorado Supreme Court has recently. intervened uh interpreting new laws to. to not apply retroactively to conduct. that [clears throat] occurred before new. the new law, but um saying in the future. such AI generated content could would be. a crime. >> Is there any way to hold the AI. companies liable um to make sure that. they their systems are not used to do. this? That's a really interesting question, right? To hold companies liable for. misuse of their technology. Um, there.

are these are major challenges because. think about AI is just another product. A product that can cause harm like a. knife could cause harm like a car could. cause harm. Um, it could also do a lot. of beneficial things as well. And so the. challenge is is is with any sort of. products liability situation trying to. hold the manufacturer of a product that. has many legitimate uses liable for a. subset of misuse. I mean I think the.

analogy is similar um if you're going to. try to hold a car maker uh oh and we've. seen by the way attempts to this like. we've seen attempts to hold car makers. liable um for being easily stealable uh. and therefore being a ripe target to be. stolen for example. So I mean there. certainly could be attempts by creative. plaintiff attorneys especially in the. civil context for tort liability. >> No that's a good point. Um you know. professor this case has another major. dimension that sparked outrage. It was. the actions or the alleged actions of.

then superintendent Edward Childris. So, the indictment against him alleges that. after learning of Jones conduct, he, and. I'm quoting from the document here, quote, did conceal the same by. permitting Wilson Jones to resign his. position as a teacher at the Corinth. School District and misrepresenting to. the Corinth School Board the reason for. Wilson Jones resignation from his. position as a teacher at the Corinth. School District and did not as soon as. possible make known the same to some. judge or other person in civil or.

military authority under the United. states. So, he's basically been indicted. on hindering prosecution. What do you. make of that charge? What do you make of. that allegation? And what would. prosecutors need to prove that this. wasn't that this delay wasn't poor. judgment or trying to get more facts, but this was a crime? >> Yeah. So I mean this is an individual. who held a position of trust, had. special duties because of that position. of trust and uh and and and according to. the allegations at least um.

affirmatively took steps like. misrepresentation to conceal harm that. has been uh that was done to students um. to whom he ar he's entrusted as a. fiduciary. So I think uh there's some. really compelling elements uh to this. charge. You know, in in American law, we. usually don't hold people responsible. for omissions to act. We usually punish. commission. However, one of the. exceptions is when somebody is in such a.

in a position of trust. And then um and. then we have here not just omissions, but also some affirmative commissions to. conceal the tracks of the offense. That's a really good point because. unfortunately I cover a number of. stories of uh child abuse uh all. different kinds uh in schools or. educators, instructors, things of that. nature. You can't automatically arrest. the principal or the superintendent. because they didn't follow it, they. didn't notice it, they didn't report it. It has to be something blatant. It has. to be something. So if the allegation is.

that he misrepresented what was going. on, that's what makes it rise to a. different level here. And I do wonder if. you have Jones pleading guilty, how does. that affect Childress's case? >> Well, I mean, um, you have some elements. established, right? U potentially by the. guilty plea, you have elements. established that this, uh, that this. material meets the definition of child. pornography under federal law, for. example. And so, um, certainly and you.

have the establishment that there was a. crime to be covered up. And so that. helps uh facilitate uh prosecution there. for covering up such a crime. You've. already established that there was a. crime. >> I I have a question for you. I don't. know if it's a a legal question or how. it happens, but I I have to get your. opinion on this. So in a final shocking, let's call it postcript to this story. We learn that after resigning, Wilson. Jones, the guy who just plead guilty, Wilson Jones, managed to get another job.

working with the state's most vulnerable. children. From our previous reporting, we learned that Jones was hired by the. Mississippi Department of Child. Protection Services as a social service. specialist. And in his application, he. reportedly asked the agency not to. contact his former employer at the. Corinth School District. How is this. possible, professor? >> Wow. You know, I'd have to look at the. entire employment form, but I would I. would imag one of my first questions and. any prosecutor's first question might.

be, did he affirmatively misrepresent um. um conduct? Some a lot of times some of. these employment forms where you're in a. sensitive position of trust with. vulnerable individuals will ask if. you've ever committed certain kinds of. uh wrongdoing. And so, one of the first. things I want to see is if there's such. a question to that effect, if there was. any misrepresentation. this would be a misrepresentation on a. form to a government agency which can. carry its own criminal consequences but. it is uh remarkable um that he was able.

to secure such a job. you know, they um. Jones was facing a lot here. Not only. the federal federal charges, he was. indicted on three counts of uh depicting. child engaging in sexual conduct uh at. the state level. And as we mentioned, he. he's now going to be having his formal. sentencing on March 2nd, 2026, where a. judge will decide what that fate should. be. It does make me wonder if the judge. is going to make a statement with this, if the judge is going to go on the. higher end um to say not only is this.

deplorable and unacceptable, but deter. maybe to deter others who would use such. technology uh to do this because it it. feels I hate to say it, it feels like. you can use this technology pretty. easily to create this kind of content. >> That's right. I mean there are there's. there are guardrails potential on uh. this technology but they are. circumventable um by tech-savvy people. and so uh you know sentencing is.

supposed to be individual it's. individual to the person before the. court. It's going to be based on their. their admission their owning up of. responsibility their um attempts to. repair the harm um their prior history. etc. But certainly one another factor is. um what we call general deterrence which. is what is the message uh deterrent. message to the community as well. Uh and. so that could be a relevant factor that. the the idea that we want to send a. message that this is not just playing.

around with uh AI that this has. potentially serious harms and we want to. recognize the fullness of the harms to. in this case real students who are. impacted. Well, uh, we will see what he is. sentenced to. We will see what happens. with Childress's case as well. Mary Fan, Professor Mary Fan, thank you so much. for taking the time. Really appreciate. it. >> Pleasure. Thanks for having me. >> And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so. much for joining us. And as always,

please subscribe [music] on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get. your podcasts. You can follow me [music]. on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll. speak to you next time.