School bus driver headed to trial on child porn charges
NORRISTOWN >> The next stop for a North Wales man who worked as a school bus driver is Montgomery County Court where he must answer to charges he possessed child pornography on his electronic devices.
Daniel R. McCaulley, 54, of the 300 block of Elm Avenue, waived his preliminary hearing before District Court Judge Suzan Leonard on four counts of possessing
child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility, all felonies, in connection with alleged incidents that occurred in May.
McCaulley now faces a Sept. 8 formal arraignment hearing on the charges in county court. After the formal arraignment hearing, a judge will schedule McCaulley’s trial date.
McCaulley remains free on $1,000 unsecured bail while awaiting trial.
Assistant District Attorney Gabriella Terese Soreth is prosecuting the case. Defense lawyer Ethan O’Shea represents McCaulley, according to court records.
With the child pornography charges, detectives specifically alleged that the images possessed by McCaulley depicted female children under 18 years of age and older than 13.
An investigation began on May 25, when detectives received CyberTips, generated by complaints filed by Yahoo, regarding images of child sexual exploitation linked to two email accounts held by McCaulley, according to a criminal complaint. The images depicted unclothed minor children, court documents indicate.
One CyberTip made reference to McCaulley being employed as a school bus driver due to other images found on the user’s platform, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective James J. Reape of the district attorney’s Special Victims Unit.
“Open source searches found that Daniel McCaulley is employed by First Student Bus Service,” Reap wrote in the criminal complaint.
First Student Inc. is a national school bus company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, that provides transportation services to school districts across the region.
When detectives met with McCaulley on May 26 he confirmed ownership of the two email accounts and the phone number associated with the accounts referenced in the CyberTips.
“Mr. McCaulley admitted to the uploading and viewing of images that he said were nudism and naturism photographs,” Reape alleged. “He stated, ‘maybe I went too far with my curiosity.’”
When detectives asked McCaulley why he would search and view the images he allegedly stated he thought the girls were “cute,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Court documents indicate McCaulley consented to a manual preview of two computer devices found in his home and the review uncovered images of minor children in bikinis as well as additional images of unclothed minors.
McCaulley allegedly admitted to masturbating while viewing images depicting one of the girls, estimating her age to be about 15, according to the criminal complaint.
A search warrant was obtained for the devices collected from McCaulley’s residence. During a forensic review of the devices, detectives located seven images of naked female children under the age of 18 with “lewd exhibition of their genitalia,” detectives alleged.
A conviction of all the charges at trial can carry a possible maximum sentence of 17½ to 35 years in prison.