A Vancouver Public Schools teacher who had federal child pornography charges dropped against him Monday will not be returning to the school district.
Jay Michaud, who was a teacher on special assignment in the district’s administrative offices, retired effective Sept. 30, 2015, and surrendered his teaching certificate Jan. 18, according to Pat Nuzzo, the district’s communications director.
As part of the surrender, Michaud also signed an agreement stating that he wouldn’t seek recertification in Washington or other states, said Nathan Olson, a spokesman for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Michaud was arrested in July 2015 for allegedly downloading child pornography from a hidden website, called Playpen, operated on Tor — a network that provides user anonymity by routing communications through numerous computers around the world.
Federal prosecutors decided to drop the charges after the U.S. Justice Department refused to disclose classified information about the hacking techniques used to gather evidence against Michaud.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bryan in Seattle agreed to dismiss Michaud’s case without prejudice, meaning charges could be re-filed at a later date.
‘Secret evidence’
According to the Associated Press, the FBI arrested Playpen’s operator in Florida in early 2015 but allowed the site to continue running for two weeks. It used special software to exploit weaknesses in the network to try to identify users by hacking into their computers.
A judge in May tossed out the government’s evidence against Michaud and ordered the FBI to disclose to the defense the vulnerability it exploited. Without the information, Michaud would be unable to mount an effective defense, the judge said.
On Thursday, his attorney Colin Fieman said Michaud’s case is the only one — of nearly 200 related cases — that was dismissed based on discovery issues.
“We are relieved and grateful to have the dismissal,” Fieman said. “Jay has maintained his innocence from the outset and can get back to his life without this hanging over him, with all practical purposes.”
Although it’s possible charges could be re-filed, Fieman said he doesn’t realistically see it happening. The government would have to declassify the malware it used and provide that information to the defense, he said.
“The dismissal order was based on the FBI essentially trying to prosecute Michaud on secret evidence, which is fundamentally inconsistent with due process,” he said.
Fieman argues there are broader implications and that the FBI overreached its authority.
“It’s very disturbing how they went about the investigation that led to charges,” he said. “All of those aspects — allowing people to upload, access and redistribute (child pornography) — was not necessary to deploy malware to figure out who was visiting the site.”
Michaud worked for the Vancouver school district in several different capacities for about 20 1/2 years, including teaching special education at Gaiser Middle School. In his most recent role, he trained other staff members on how to work with students on positive behavior, according to the district.
