‘My stomach is churning:’ WA teacher charged with possessing child porn

An Archbishop Murphy High School (AMHS) teacher in Everett was recently charged with two counts of sex crimes involving young children.

According to King County court records, prosecutors filed charges against the suspect, John Doty, 32, including dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and possession of similar content between January 16, 2024 and July 16, 2024. King County Jail records show the suspect is being held on $250,000 bail and is awaiting trial.

“This is disturbing,” reporter Luke Duecy said on “The Gee and Ursula Show.” “And that’s kind of the disclaimer here, but these are important stories to tell as well.”

According to court documents obtained by Duecy and MyNorthwest, prosecutors have charged John Doty after uncovering downloaded files on his computer that contained child pornography. Prosecutors described many images as depicting children and sexual intercourse, masturbation, penetration, urination, defecation and sadomasochistic abuse.

“The youngest victim in one of these videos, according to investigators, appears to be a one-year-old,” Duecy said. “Prosecutors said the suspect was downloading and sending these materials between January and July of last year. King County Sheriff’s deputies said they were acting undercover online and came across Doty.”

Related on MyNorthwest: WA high school teacher charged with sex crimes involving young children

During a police interview, Doty claimed he doesn’t find the content with kids sexually arousing and doesn’t have a sexual interest in kids, he merely finds it exciting to know that he is doing something illegal.

“My stomach is churning,” KIRO Newsradio guest host Angela Poe Russell said on “The Gee and Ursula Show.” “I think for all of you listening, it’s probably the same. I want to know, as a reporter, it can be difficult to cover this stuff and hard to listen to, but it’s important that we talk about it because we can’t protect kids if we pretend it’s not happening.”

“As a journalist, these are some of the most difficult stories to cover. We hate reading the details, just like anyone would,” Duecy said. “But I mean, I also think about the investigators who actually look at these depictions themselves, and they have to go through counseling. The reason they do (counseling) is not just because of the depictions themselves, which are horrible in and of itself, but because, on the other end, in those photos, those poor children are being victimized and it’s happening in our world in places where you don’t think it would happen. In our communities where you don’t think it should happen or could happen ever.”

Doty’s employment with Archbishop Murphy High School ended shortly after charges were filed in Seattle on Monday. According to the charging documents filed with King County, no Archbishop Murphy students were involved in the alleged crimes.

“We have to remember as a community that monsters don’t always look like monsters, and it’s not only this story, but recent ones as well,” Russell said. “We’ve had teachers, other teachers, people in the community having evidence of doing horrible things. I am so sad that this happened, and I’m also glad that we’re covering it.”

Listen to the full conversation here:

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Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.