WTHR |Teacher facing charges for online sex acts

Teacher facing charges for online sex acts

David MacAnally/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - An area middle school teacher is facing several charges involving child solicitation and obscene performances.

At Guion Creek Middle School, 41-year-old Michael Ashburn held a position of trust as a science teacher and coach. He's now charged with sexually explicit conduct on the Internet with someone he thought was the age of one of his students.

According to court papers, Ashburn was using his home computer web cam to perform online sex acts for a 14-year-old girl. What he didn't know was the girl was actually an undercover police officer.

"Dateline NBC" has covered those encounters for years with their "To Catch A Predator" series. Police say Ashburn admitted to the conduct, including showing a porn video online while using the screen name "GOLDENGOPHERBOY".

In fact, the prosecutor says as the SWAT team moved on Ashburn's house in the Devonshire subdivision, he was actually online with the undercover officer. He now faces five counts of obscene performance and one count of solicitation.

Ashburn was at home Friday, because he resigned his teaching job right after his arrest. He declined to discuss the charges against him with Eyewitness News.

"No thanks," he said.

"We have someone who is in the school environment and obviously has access to children on a regular basis, which is quite frightening to most parents," said Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp.

Leerkamp says she knows of no problems involving any of the school children, while praising the work of Hamilton County's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.