Connor Brueggemann, 26, of Wildwood has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for possessing child pornography. He had worked for several months as a teaching assistant in a music class at Parkway School District’s Henry Elementary School in Ballwin.
Brueggemann pleaded guilty to the child porn charge on Nov. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, and U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk sentenced him to 52 months in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
Brueggemann was hired by the Parkway School District in December 2019, and he was fired in July 2020 after the district was notified of his arrest, district spokesman Paul Tandy said.
“Mr. Brueggemann worked as a teaching assistant at Henry Elementary between December 2019 and March 2020 when Parkway transitioned to virtual learning due to the pandemic,” Tandy said. “During the four months he worked in classrooms, we have no evidence or reason to believe there was any inappropriate contact or communication with students.”
The investigation that led to Brueggemann’s arrest began as part of Project Save Childhood, a nationwide initiative that started in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In May 2020, the St. Louis County Human Trafficking Task Force received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone had uploaded 44 files containing child pornography on Oct. 10, 2019. Detectives determined Brueggemann uploaded the files, according to his plea agreement.
On July 14, 2020, investigators searched the Wildwood home where Brueggemann lived and found more than 360 media items containing child sexual abuse material and 786 files containing depictions of child exploitation. Brueggemann told investigators he had done “terrible things,” and he wanted to get help with his addiction to child pornography, the agreement said.
He also said he began viewing child porn on his cell phone about one year before his home was searched, according to the plea.
The FBI and St. Louis County Police investigated the case, which was handled by assistant U.S. attorney Dianna Collins.