Ex-teacher busted in child-porn roundup

GRANTS. N.M. (KRQE) - A New Mexico newspaper reporter and licensed educator arrested in a child-porn case held a dark fantasy and created images to back it up, federal authorities allege.

Richard Dates, 67 is accused of being part of a worldwide child-porn investigation where men shared pictures and sex videos as well as crude, brutal fantasies.

“Since we became aware of the charges and he was charged in federal court, he’s been terminated,” said Don Jaramillo, publisher of the Cibola Beacon in Grants.

Dates was a part-time reporter and copy editor at the Beacon. Jaramillo said Dates only worked there five months, had passed a background check and was a retired teacher.

A New Mexico Public Education Department spokesman said Dates is a licensed educator in New Mexico but could not say where or if he taught school.

Dates' profile on the professionals' website LinkedIn says he taught science, gifted and alternative classes in the Gallup-McKinley County Schools from October 2006 to last November and before that was a math, language arts and science tutor for 12 years in the Chicago area.

Federal authorities searched Dates mobile home and apartment. According to court records they found computers filled with hundreds of pictures and videos of child porn.

The feds also say Dates confessed to sharing stories on the Internet via Skype about a “world where young people would be raped, butchered, cooked and served to patrons at a restaurant.”

Dates digitally edited photos and sent pictures of butchered body parts, the feds allege. They say they found binders and books including one that described how to butcher and strangle children with household items.

“It scares the hell out of me 'cause it makes you think twice who you live next to,” said Dates' neighbor Tomacina Banally.

There is nothing in the federal paperwork that suggests Dates actually lived out his fantasies. The child porn sting netted 46 suspects in seven countries and included a pastor in the Denver area.