TURNERS FALLS — The Erving man arraigned on child pornography charges this week worked at Sheffield Elementary School in Montague until his abrupt resignation in May.
George M. Rodriguez, 41, of Erving, was arraigned in Franklin County Superior Court Monday on 36 counts of possession of child pornography. The Northwestern District Attorney’s Office said he uploaded at least 189 videos of suspected child pornography onto his Google Drive between August 2014 and March 2016.
Gill-Montague Regional School District Superintendent Michael Sullivan said Rodriguez was employed by the district as a custodian at Sheffield Elementary for a month from April 26 to May 31, before he resigned. He said there were “no issues of concern” with Rodriguez’s performance.
Sullivan said Rodriguez gave no advance notice before resigning. That was after Rodriguez received his summons from Superior Court.
Rodriguez admitted to police that he stored hundreds of pornographic videos and images on his Google Drive, and that it was possible he accidentally downloaded images of children, according to court documents.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on $1,000 cash bail with a number of conditions.
According to findings of fact submitted by Assistant District Attorney Anne K. Yereniuk, police were tipped off about the videos by the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children, which received a cybertip from Google concerning three videos that were uploaded to a Google Drive account associated with Rodriguez’s email address that contained purported child pornography.
He is due back in court Nov. 17 for a pretrial hearing. His case has been placed on the May 2018 criminal trial list.
Conditions of his bail include that he wear a GPS tracking device, report to the probation department on a regular basis and not have any contact, work or volunteer or spend overnights with children under 16, excluding biological or adopted children.