GILBERT, AZ (CBS5) -
A Gilbert school administrator missed out on a big job opportunity because a disgruntled parent created a fake porn website in his name.
It all started at a Gilbert Elementary school where Robert Esparza's child was a student. According to court records, the assistant principal took away his iPod, and the dad got mad.
Esparza went online and created a fake profile in the assistant principal's name. It was on a pornographic web site, complete with pictures of the assistant principal from the school's web site and some sexually explicit photos Esparza found on Craigslist. Court documents show Esparza also posted sexually explicit comments on the page and linked pornographic videos to the site.
The school administrator might never have found out if he hadn't applied for a principal's job in another district. That boss decided to check him out on Google and found the site with his name all over it.
"As a consequence of creating that profile, going so far as to create an entire profile on that web site, it actually led to the official being denied a job opportunity in the course of a background check," said Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.
CBS 5 News spoke with the detective who cracked the case. Det. Dennis Ogorchock said he used the IP address to track down Esparza.
Ogorchock told CBS 5 News Esparza was using his work laptop to post on the site.
"He told me that he logged onto the website probably 25 times or more," he said.
Ogorchock said Esparza initially tried to blame someone else for the postings.
"In the first interview he denied doing it at all and tried to blame it on his son," Ogorchock said.
CBS 5 News spoke with the superintendent at the Higley Unified School District. Dr. Denise Birdwell said she knew her employee wouldn't do something like that and helped clear his name. He has since been hired as principal at another school in the Higley district.
Esparza has been found guilty of computer tampering and identity theft. He'll be sentenced next month.
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Robert Esparza
