Child Porn Charges For 6th-Grade Teacher

LARGO, FL — A 57-year-old Clearwater Intermediate sixth-grade teacher faces a long list of criminal charges after Largo Police say his roommate reported seeing suspicious photographs on the his laptop computer. Although the teacher is accused of tossing the laptop into a pond near his Country Club Drive apartment, police say they were able to retrieve evidence of alleged criminal activity.

Robert James Plotkin was arrested in the case on Tuesday after detectives picked him up at the 1220 Palmetto St. school in Clearwater.

According to Largo Police, the investigation into Plotkin’s alleged activity began on March 15 after Plotkin and his roommate got into an argument about a vehicle. The roommate, a Tuesday email from the police department said, called officers to report the alleged images. He also told Plotkin he had done so, the email said.

While Largo officers were on the way to the apartment in the 200 block of Country Club Drive, “Plotkin threw his laptop into a lake behind the apartment complex,” the email said. When officers arrived on the scene, Plotkin reportedly told them the machine was in the lake. Plotkin, the email noted, retrieved the wet computer “on his own accord.”

The laptop was seized as evidence on March 15, but Plotkin was not charged with any crimes at that time. Largo Police Department Cyber Crime Investigator Wagoner was able to recover images from the laptop’s hard drive. Those images included shots of “child pornography, ages ranging from 3 to 17,” the email said.

With photo evidence in hand, detectives paid Plotkin a visit at Clearwater Intermediate on March 28. He was brought to the Largo Police Department for questioning and was subsequently arrested. Plotkin now faces 10 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of tampering with physical evidence, the police department said. The investigation remains active.

Plotkin has served as a sixth grade math and science teacher at Clearwater Intermediate for five years, the police department reported.

“Mr. Plotkin will not return to Clearwater Intermediate, pending the outcome of the investigation,” Pinellas County Schools spokeswoman Lisa Wolf told Patch Tuesday afternoon.

Plotkin had not been booked into the Pinellas County Jail as of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. No further information is available at this time.

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