A North County man who worked as a teacher's aide, substitute teacher and youth hockey coach pleaded guilty this week to a federal count of child pornography distribution.
Daniel Dasko was arrested last year after federal authorities said he exchanged child pornography online with two people, one of whom was a Philadelphia-area teacher.
Dasko pleaded guilty Tuesday in San Diego federal court and is slated for sentencing in July.
His plea agreement states he distributed a sexually explicit video involving a teenage boy and also gave another person "the online contact information for minors" that he knew the other person would use "to persuade the minors to produce child pornographic images and videos."
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The U.S. Attorney's Office alleges the defendants posed as women or girls on social media sites in order to bait minor male victims into sending them nude photos or videos.
According to Dasko's criminal complaint, an FBI agent wrote that the Philadelphia-area teacher and a person in New York described only as "Alex" worked to trick the teacher's own middle school students into sharing such content. The Philadelphia teacher and "Alex" were later arrested and charged, according to the complaint.
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During that investigation, prosecutors say the Philadelphia-area teacher was found to be communicating online with another person who went by the name "Mr. Pickles," who the U.S. Attorney's Office contends is Dasko.
Prosecutors said the teacher and "Mr. Pickles" exchanged more than 3,600 messages over the course of a year, the majority of which revolved around "sexually exploiting children they knew or met online."
Victims or anyone with information about this case was encouraged to call the FBI San Diego Field Office at 858-320-1800 or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. Tips may be sent anonymously.
