ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Orange County school teacher arrested on child pornography charges appeared before a judge Wednesday morning. The elementary school teacher, Dale Chisena Sr., was arrested Tuesday along with his son, Dale Chisena Jr., for allegedly collecting child pornography.
A judge ordered Dale Chisena Sr. to have no contact with his son, children or any witnesses in the case. Chisena Sr. was also ordered not to use a computer.
The judge set Dale Chisena Sr.'s bond at $60,000. He was ordered to be placed on home confinement if or when he bonds out and to obtain a separate residence from his son, but is not required to wear a GPS monitoring device.
"You need to not have any contact at this point with your son, who i believe to be a co-defendant at this time," the judge stated Wednesday morning.
FIRST APPEARANCE: Teacher Faces Judge SUSPECTS IN CUSTODY: See Images | Raw Video
"Do you have any questions about the conditions of your bond in regards to no contact with children?" the judge asked. "No contact with your co-defendant or anything of that nature?"
"No," Dale Chisena Sr. replied.
WFTV was there when the father and son were arrested.
"Anything you want to say about your students, or parents?" WFTV photographer Tom Zylowski asked the suspect during his arrest.
Dale Chisena Sr., 58, who is a second grade teacher at Lovell Elementary School in Apopka, and 22-year-old Dale Chisena Jr., were arrested (video | images) by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), with assistance from the Attorney General's CyberCrime Unit, after investigators discovered the men had multiple images of child pornography in their possession.
"Did your dad have you look at porn with him?" Zylowski asked Dale Chisena Jr.
Dale Chisena, Sr. has been a second grade teacher at Lovell Elementary School for the past 33 years. He and his son were arrested Tuesday morning after FDLE agents raided their home on Log Landing Drive in Ocoee (see map) and reportedly found 1,000 child porn images.
Chisena Sr.'s wife is a school principal at Windermere Elementary School and has worked in the district for 34 years. Investigators don't think she had anything to do with the crime, but agents said her husband knew what he was doing when he downloaded the child porn.
"You've been a parent 30 years. You don't have anything to say for yourself?" Dale Chisena Sr. was asked as he was led away.
Walking out in handcuffs, neither father nor son had anything to say to WFTV's cameras.
"I can't believe he did something like that," parent Eva Martinez said.
Martinez's daughter had Chisena as a teacher last year. She thought he was a good teacher. Now, she can't believe the man who spent so much time with her child was involved in a crime so disturbing.
"You think teachers are safe. Nowadays, you can't trust nobody," she said.
FDLE hasn't found any evidence students at the school were involved in the porn, but that is something they will investigate. Chisena Sr. has been suspended from his job in the school system.
The bizarre father-son dynamic was discovered after agents happened to be monitoring the same peer-to-peer network the father and son used to get the child porn images. What's even more surprising is that Chisena Sr., officials said, might not have known his son was doing the same thing on the same computer.
Investigators will next try to determine the identities of the girls in the graphic pictures. They said that is the next logical step to take in order to figure out if any of Chisena's students were ever victimized.
Dale Chisena Jr. was released Tuesday night on $50,000 bond.
WFTV
