According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a teacher’s assistant, substitute teacher, and minor hockey coach in the San Diego region have been detained and charged by federal officials with allegedly trading child pornography online with another teacher across the nation.
Daniel Dasko, 30, of Carlsbad, is charged with planning to obtain and exchange sexually explicit content featuring minors with a teacher in the Philadelphia region, among others.
The Del Mar, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, and Solana Beach school districts, as well as the San Dieguito Union School District, have all listed Dasko as a substitute teacher, according to the San Diego County Office of Education.
Drasko assisted in coaching the 12-under team, according to coaches at the San Diego Ice Arena.
“In four decades nothing similar has ever occurred in my program, “said Joel Henderso, head of the hockey team for the San Diego Ice Arena Oilers.
Henderson claimed that Drasko was removed from SDIA programs as soon as the U.S. Center for Safesport learned of the incident.
“It’s shocking and terrifying because these are people we think we trust who are teaching our kids a sport,” said the older sister of one of Drasko’s players. “It’s eye-opening how careful we have to be in places we think we might not have to.”
The unnamed Philadelphia teacher was the subject of an investigation that culminated in Dasko’s arrest, according to the prosecution, who alleges that she and others planned to use social media to assume female or girl identities in order to lure young male targets into sending them explicit images or videos.
The teacher and a person in New York by the name of “Alex,” according to an FBI agent’s report in Dasko’s criminal complaint, conspired to coerce the Philadelphia teacher’s own middle school children into revealing such information.
According to the complaint, the Philadelphia teacher and “Alex” were later detained and charged.
Prosecutors claim that during that inquiry, it was discovered that the Philadelphia teacher was in online contact with someone going by the name of “Mr. Pickles,” who the U.S. Attorney’s Office believes to be Dasko.
Over the course of a year, the instructor and “Mr. Pickles,” according to the prosecution, exchanged more than 3,600 messages, the majority of which were about “sexually exploiting minors they knew or met online.” They also exchanged video and image files, albeit the lawsuit claims that many of these files’ contents were hidden from law authorities.
But according to the lawsuit, “Alex” emailed “Mr. Pickles” a pornographic video last year that he had obtained from a young child, and “Mr. Pickles” subsequently transmitted it to the Philadelphia instructor.
On the Thursday after last Wednesday’s arrest, Dasko was brought before a federal judge in San Diego. When he was arrested, according to the prosecution, he acknowledged being “Mr. Pickles.” Additionally, he acknowledged, according to the lawsuit, “that he would ask others for photographs of minor guys who were naked.”
