Adam Windsor, 25, of Hagerstown, faces five to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge William D. Quarles Jr. on Dec. 1 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

Raphael J. Santini, Windsor's lawyer, declined to comment Thursday evening when contacted at his Baltimore law office.

Frederick County Public Schools officials could not be reached for comment.

In June and August, Frederick County grand juries indicted Windsor on local charges tied to video surveillance of five girls, ages 12 to 14.

State's Attorney Charlie Smith said local authorities agreed to defer prosecution of Windsor to federal authorities to ensure he receives a substantial punishment under a plea agreement.

"People need to be aware that we are going to team up with federal prosecutors to get the harshest sentence possible for perps possessing or creating child pornography," Smith said Thursday after Windsor's federal conviction was announced.

"Stiff, no-parole sentences served far from their home," he said. "I would love to have truth in sentencing legislation with no parole sentences here in Maryland state courts, but Annapolis is too defendant-oriented."

According to the plea agreement, Windsor paid $79.99 for a subscription to a website where he could see and receive child pornography over the Internet, authorities said.

As part of Operation Emissary III, which targets users of child pornography websites, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents executed a federal search warrant April 24 at Windsor's residence and seized computers and other digital evidence, Rosenstein said.

Computer forensic analysis of the items seized revealed that the music and drama teacher had possessed and received at least three videos and seven images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The images, which were stored on his computer, included depictions of violence and bondage, prosecutors said.

Three other videos found, each more than an hour long, "appeared to have been surreptitiously recorded while minor females were changing their clothes," Rosenstein said.

"The videos were taken during the time Windsor was working at the middle school in connection with the production of a play," he said.

A camera hidden in a room where the girls were changing clothes "was positioned in a way that made it clear that Windsor was attempting to capture images of their genitalia," documents state.

Investigators also found an on-line text discussion in which Windsor talked about his "great new business" in which "girls at my school email me pics of them, and i slide money in their locker lol." The acronym lol stands for "laughing out loud."

Windsor said he paid the girls different amounts, depending on the girl, and that he became aroused by the images, Rosenstein said.

Investigators also found 1,500 pages of stored chat communication under different screen names in which Windsor pretended to be girls 12 to 16 years old. He solicited girls to send him naked photos and images of sexual conduct.

"I am grateful to ICE for conducting the nationwide investigation that led to the discovery of a danger to schoolchildren in Maryland," Rosenstein said.

"As is often true in our child pornography investigations, Mr. Windsor's criminal activities were not restricted to downloading images."

Windsor, Ballenger Creek's theater arts and band teacher for three years, was placed on administrative leave April 24 when school officials became aware of the criminal investigation by local and federal authorities.

Investigators said Windsor used a cell phone to videotape girls dressing in a room set up for costume changes. He told them to change clothes there.

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