Aaron Scott Byrns, 46, was indicted May 24, 2024, by a federal grand jury in Puerto Rico on charges stemming from accusations that he placed of a hidden camera in a girls' bathroom at a Defense Department school in Aguadilla. (Joshua Magbanua/U.S. Air Force)
A longtime Department of Defense Education Activity employee is facing child exploitation charges after prosecutors alleged that he placed a hidden camera in a girls’ bathroom at an elementary school in Puerto Rico.
Aaron Scott Byrns, 46, used a cellphone at Ramey Unit School in Aguadilla in an attempt to capture images of girls’ private areas, the Justice Department said in a statement late last month.
A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico indicted Byrns on May 24. He’s facing one count of production of child pornography, one count of possession of child pornography and one count of video voyeurism, according to court documents.
Laura Soto-Santiago, a federal public defender in Puerto Rico who is listed in court papers as representing Byrns, did not respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.
Aaron Scott Byrns, seen here in a photo from the 2022-23 yearbook for Ramstein Middle School in Germany. A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico indicted Byrns on child pornography charges on May 24, 2024. (DODEA)
A conviction for production of child pornography carries a maximum of 30 years in prison, according to a statement from the Homeland Security Department. Byrns faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the possession charge.
Prosecutors allege that the crimes occurred from Dec. 15, 2023, through about April 15. Byrns was jailed pending trial at the request of the government, according to detention orders signed Wednesday.
In the request for pretrial confinement, prosecutors said they had identified 16 video files on Byrns’ phone containing child pornography, including one that shows his minor neighbor and one that shows him asking a minor to step over the video camera lens “to capture her underwear or intimate parts,” according to the detention order.
“Upon learning of the allegations, DODEA leadership reassigned the individual to administrative duties at the community superintendent’s office,” agency spokesman Will Griffin said in a statement Sunday.
Griffin said Byrns’ employment with DODEA began in 2011. He did not say at which schools the defendant was previously employed and said it would be inappropriate to comment further while the investigation is still active.
During the 2022-23 school year, Byrns was employed at Ramstein Middle School in Germany. Details on his job were not immediately available, but he was not a teacher at the time.
