Former West Middle School teacher charged with more counts of child porn possession

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A former West Middle School teacher who was charged with statutory sodomy and a slew of other child sex crimes is now charged in another case.

Zachary Hutchinson, of Columbia, was arrested on Friday and charges appeared on Monday in his new case. He is now charged with three counts of child porn possession. He is being held in the Boone County Jail without bond. A hearing in his new case has not been scheduled, but one for his original case was set for Monday morning.

His was charged in his first case from January with three counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, one count of child enticement, sexually exploiting a minor, misdemeanor giving porn to a minor, second-degree promoting child porn and 10 counts of child porn possession.

He was originally put on house arrest after he bonded out of jail on Feb. 4.

The probable cause statement in his new case say police put in a search warrant request of Hutchinson’s Discord account, which is an app used for messaging. Police received information from Discord on April 3, which appeared to show seven videos and 16 pictures of child porn, the statement says.

The probable cause statement in his original case says Hutchinson encouraged the victim to go into his vehicle to perform sexual acts. The victim’s mother allegedly found nude photographs of Hutchinson on the victim’s phone and additional messages appeared to show Hutchinson making plans to meet with the youth.

Text messages described in court documents took place over the course of several days and showed explicit conversations and details of illicit photos between Hutchinson and the victim.

Authorities have repeatedly said that the victim in that case did not meet Hutchinson “as a result of his employment, nor did any known contact occur on school property.”