Cape & Islands News

Falmouth teacher admits to kid porn

Mashpee Man Pleads Guilty to Receipt of Child Pornography
David Berglund faces 10 years in prison, hundreds of child porn images found

A Mashpee resident pleaded guilty today in federal court to possession of child pornography. United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Sharon E. Ormsby, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigations in New England, announced that David  Berglund, age 42, of 18 Holly Farm Drive, Mashpee, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with possession of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Berglund has spent the last 17 years working as a physics teacher at Falmouth High School. He also was a volunteer with the Boys & Girls Club of Cape Cod where he was banned after video taping children on a beach last year.

According to documents previously filed with the court and statements made by the prosecutor at today's plea hearing, FBI agents discovered between 150 and 300 child pornography images on Berglund's computer after he consented to their searching it. The images were primarily of naked prepubescent boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The agents were led to Berglund's computer as a result of an investigation by the Innocent Images International Task Force (ITF) located in Calverton, Maryland.

In October 2004, the ITF began an investigation of several child pornography web sites which were utilizing certain payment services, including "E-Gold". By June 2005, due to the ongoing international investigation, E-Gold became the only available means of purchasing membership into web sites identified as supplying child pornography.

FBI spoke to Berglund on phone & he consented to a PC search 

Based on information that was seized from the E-Gold server, the FBI was able to obtain transaction history records. Among the records were those indicating that Berglund had purchased a $125 membership in August 2005. Agents then went and spoke to Berglund at his home at which time he consented to their search of his home computer.

Berglund has been in federal custody since his arrest on September 1, 2006. Judge Stearns scheduled sentencing for February 27, 2007, at 2:30 p.m. Berglund faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Gershengorn in Sullivan's Major Crimes Unit.