Encinitas teacher arrested on child porn charges

By: YVETTE URREA - Staff Writer | Thursday, April 29, 2004 7:07 AM PDT ∞

ENCINITAS ---- A sixth-grade math teacher from Ada Harris School has been arrested on suspicion of possession of child pornography, officials said Wednesday. Dale Arthur Regazzi, 58, of Encinitas was arrested April 8 on suspicion of possession of obscene material, destroying or concealing evidence and attempting to sexually exploit a child, a Vista jail clerk said.

Regazzi will be arraigned May 24 and until then the District Attorney has no comment, Deputy District Attorney Geoff Allard said Wednesday.

A sergeant with the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force said Regazzi was put on administrative leave when investigators notified the school that he was under investigation, but it was unclear when that occurred. Cardiff School Superintendent Vince Jewell could not be reached for comment on the arrest or how long Regazzi had been employed by the district.

Regazzi, who arrest papers say is divorced and has no known children or child relatives in the area, is free on $50,000 bail. He did not answer his door Wednesday and his home phone number is disconnected.

A declaration in support of an arrest warrant filed with Vista court shows that investigators from the FBI, the California Bureau of Investigations with the California Department of Justice, the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team and the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force had been investigating Regazzi since at least June 2003.

A warrant to search Regazzi's home states agents got his name and information in 2001 out of a larger federal investigation into an online credit card verification service that processed credit card charges for a number of child pornography sites. In October 2002, the names were given to investigators in San Diego County, according to the search warrant.

In June 2003, Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement team members contacted him at his sixth-grade math classroom at Ada Harris and asked for his consent to search his residence and computer for child pornography, the declaration stated. He declined, saying he had to speak with his attorney and was observed leaving the parking lot in a rush, the declaration said.

School administrators allowed agents to search the computers in the classroom but nothing was found, the declaration stated.

The declaration also stated Regazzi's school personnel file was obtained by agents and showed he had received a letter of reprimand in 1994 "for inappropriate physical contact with two fifth-grade girls, whom he placed on his lap and exchanged mutual back and rubbing while at a school basketball game."

His personnel file also included a letter of complaint from a parent who had enclosed letters the teacher wrote to her then-fourth-grade daughter.

"Regazzi had used the word 'love' to describe his affection for the girl and alleged that he had cried openly when he learned she would not return to his class the next year," the declaration stated.

The mother also complained in the letter that Regazzi took her daughter to a movie and returned her after midnight without notifying her, the declaration said. It was unclear from the document what year the incident occurred.

Less than a week after contacting Regazzi at the school in 2003, investigators with the district attorney's office removed Regazzi's trash from the curb of his residence, the declaration stated. Inside, they found two computer central processing units that were missing both hard drives, a compact disc broken irreparably into dozens of pieces and a videotape which had been removed from its plastic casing, partially unspooled, and cut into ribbons, according to the declaration.

The tape, titled "Tom et Lola," was spliced together by investigators and found to feature naked children. Investigators also obtained a copy on the Internet, the declaration stated.

Additionally, investigators found various notes containing apparent login passwords to child pornography Web sites and Web addresses to child model sites, where young girls model clothes or swimsuits for "fans," the declaration said. Regazzi also had memberships to various child pornography sites, the declaration stated.

Investigators obtained search warrants for Regazzi's credit cards and found he was spending large sums of money on various Internet credit verification services each month as well as buying children's clothing and gifts, the declaration stated.

On Sept. 8, the FBI executed a search warrant at Regazzi's home and found numerous boxes of photographs of children and several "coming of age" films, the declaration said.

His computer was seized but contained virtually no data and had large amounts of space "overwritten with characters, consistent with an effort to 'wipe' or clean incriminating data from the hard drive," the declaration stated. No downloaded files from the Internet were located on the computer and it did not contain an Internet history, the report stated.

"Based on my training and experience, I believe Regazzi to be an individual who is sexually attracted to children and a collector of child pornography," said California Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Denise Felix in the declaration.

Some parents of Ada Harris students who recently learned of Regazzi's arrest said they are angry that they were not told about it by the school or district.

"We just think we should have been notified. If the school has an outbreak of lice or a predator near the school, they contact us," said parent Mike Russo. "Maybe because he's one of their own (teachers), it was hushed."

Russo said he was very disappointed to hear of the popular math teacher's arrest. Parents said they thought that he might have been tending to a sick relative when he was not at school. Eventually, the information about his arrest began spreading quietly to the children and then parents, he said.

Another parent, Jill Lamb, said she spoke with Superintendent Jewell who confirmed the teacher's arrest. She said he indicated that the district was waiting until the media found out and then would comment.

"We put our children in front of this man who walked around with a camera around his neck," Lamb said.

When Lamb questioned her fourth-grade son, he told her yes, he was aware of the reason Regazzi was not at the school but that it was a secret, she said. She said she feels sad that the district lost an opportunity to talk to children about inappropriate behavior.

Lamb said the message should have been that it can be anyone, it can happen anywhere and children must report anything unusual to parents or adults. Instead she feels the message was to keep it a secret.

She said parents also lost the opportunity to get the correct information to the children because often rumors get distorted. Lamb said she feels the district should be doing something to explain the situation and offer counseling to the students.

Russo said he hopes Regazzi will be cleared of the crimes because "he's an excellent teacher."

Contact staff writer Yvette Urrea at (760) 901-4076 or yurrea@nctimes.com.