A former employee of the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) has been sentenced to six years of deferred probation for three counts of possession of child pornography.
John Adolph Lentz, 65, pleaded guilty to the three charges in Dallas County district court. In addition to the deferred probation, he must register as a sex offender and surrender his teaching certification, according to People Newspapers.
Lentz was arrested back in June 2021 by the Mesquite Police Department. He was initially arrested on six charges, including three additional charges of possessing lewd material depicting a child. However, a grand jury decided not to indict him on the lewd material offenses last October.
In addition to working as a community liaison for Foster Elementary School in DISD, Lentz also worked for the Boy Scouts of America and volunteered at a Catholic church in Dallas. Not long after his arrest, Lentz was fired by DISD and the Boy Scouts.
The Catholic Diocese of Dallas issued a statement following Lentz’s arrest, per CBS Texas:
“We learned today, June 15, the Mesquite Police Department arrested a man who volunteered at St. Pius X church in Dallas on charges of possession of child pornography. John Adolf Lentz volunteered as a catechism teacher at the parish since the Fall of 2008.
“It has been confirmed that Lentz passed all Safe Environment requirements including a criminal background check before the parish allowed him to volunteer.”
It is currently unclear where Lentz is residing, but he has been out on bail since just a day or two after his arrest.
Law enforcement in North Texas has been trying to crack down on the possession and production of child pornography as of late. As previously reported in The Dallas Express, a multi-agency operation earlier this year led to the rescue of 28 children and criminal charges for 59 people around the metroplex.
While the City of Dallas, which struggles to keep crime under control, does not maintain a readily-accessible running count of reported child pornography offenses or sexual assaults committed against children, there was a total of 71 pornography/obscene material offenses reported last year.
Reports of possession of child pornography fall into this category.
