According to the offense report filed by BPD, McGraw's ex-wife allegedly made a report accusing McGraw of having child sex abuse material on a thumb drive in January of 2024.
- Zachary McGraw, a former teacher at Golden Oak Elementary in Shafter, allegedly had hundreds of photos depicting child sex abuse material on his phone according to the offense report filed by BPD.
- McGraw's ex-wife allegedly found a thumb drive containing child pornography in April of 2023, and after confronting him about it, he became hostile according to the report she made in January of 2024.
- McGraw is currently not in law enforcement custody and is scheduled to be arraigned on February 26th at 8 a.m.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Zachary McGraw, the man accused of possession and distribution of Child sex abuse material allegedly was reported for these allegations in January of 2024. I'm Sam Hoyle, your neighborhood reporter, that coming from documents obtained by 23ABC.
According to the offense report filed by the Bakersfield police department, McGraw's now ex- wife allegedly found a thumb drive in april 2023 that contained child pornography. After confronting McGraw, the woman alleges that "McGraw became upset, threatened her, and then took her cellular phone," and he then locked her in the bedroom closet for a few hours.
After the incident, the woman says she left McGraw out of fear and that he legally owned firearms and did not report the incident until January 2024.
The thumb drive was never handed off to law enforcement.
In the report, investigators asked McGraw about the report his ex-wife made to KCSO, McGraw said the report was made because she was upset his new girlfriend was at the house. Investigators then confronted McGraw about the report and allegations that his IP address is now involved in a child pornographic material investigation and folders on his phone with child pornographic names.
A forensic report of what investigators allege is McGraw's phone shows they found several hundred photos in the cache of a secure folder and various links to an encrypted file-sharing service depicting child sex abuse material.
According to the report, the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children provided three cyber tips to law enforcement ranging from late September to mid-October of 2024 where dozens of files containing child sex abuse material were uploaded through the messaging app, Kik.
On the day of McGraw's original arrest, he told investigators that he was familiar with the messaging app, but had not used it in years.
According to data from NCMEC, in 2023 over 110 thousand reports were made in California through the cyber tipline. The cyber tipline allows The public and electronic service providers to make reports of suspected online enticement of children for sexual acts, child sexual molestation, child sexual abuse material, and more.
McGraw was a teacher at Golden Oak Elementary in Shafter, according to the Superintendant for the Richland School District, McGraw is no longer employed there.
McGraw is currently not in custody and faces two felony counts of possession and distribution of child sex abuse material. He is scheduled to be arraigned on February 26 at 8 am.
In Bakersfield, I'm Sam Hoyle, your neighborhood reporter.
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