TPS teacher gets 75 months for child porn

Bruce Omlor had pleaded guilty in May to receiving the material on his home computer.

A social media picture of Bruce Omlor.

Saying Bruce Omlor had a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, a federal court judge on Monday sentenced the Toledo Public Schools teacher to 75 months in prison for downloading child pornography.

Omlor, 50, of Toledo had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in May to receiving child pornography on his home computer. In a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, two additional charges were dismissed.

Judge Jack Zouhary told Omlor he was sentencing him to more than the mandatory 60 months in prison but less than the recommended sentence of between 151 and 188 months because of his mental-health diagnoses, his lack of a criminal record, and his willingness to take responsibility for his acts.

“This is a defendant who clearly has a Jekyll-Hyde personality,” the judge noted.

He ordered that Omlor receive counseling and sex-offender treatment while in prison.

Federal investigators found more than 17,000 images of child pornography on DVDs in Omlor’s home and on his home computer. He admitted to sharing the images with others he met online from various email addresses he had established.

Omlor, who had been employed with TPS since 2000, was suspended without pay in December from his job as a special education teacher at Riverside Elementary. TPS spokesman Patty Mazur said Monday that his Ohio teaching license has been revoked, and the school board is expected to act on his termination Sept. 24.

Omlor and his attorney, John Potts, stressed that he had never engaged in sexual activity with children and that none of the online activity took place at school.

Mr. Potts asked the court to consider sentencing him to the minimum term, saying a longer sentence would be “life destroying.” Judge Zouhary told Omlor his time in prison did not have to destroy his life, but that he should use the time to find ways to make up for what he had done.

“To be blunt, go into this with the belief that you can change those chapters from the chapter that brings us here today,” the judge said. “Acknowledging what you did is wrong is the first step, and then you’ll move forward thinking, how am I going to make up for this?”

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.