JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former Duval County teacher pleaded guilty to having images and videos depicting children being sexually abused, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said Thursday.
Michael Paul Gillis, 64, of Jacksonville, faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a potential lifetime term of supervised release.
His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Gillis was arrested Feb. 2 at his Westside home by FBI agents and indicted by a federal grand jury. He has been detained since his arrest, with a judge ordering him held without bond.
On the day Gillis was arrested, FBI agents executed a search warrant at his home. Gillis admitted that he had been accessing child sexual abuse materials using the internet for at least the past 15 years, that he had viewed materials depicting children as young as 3 years old, and that he currently had “a couple hundred” contraband videos on his computer, according to federal prosecutors.
FBI agents seized several computers belonging to Gillis that contained at least 2,000 images and 210 videos depicting infants, toddlers and other young children being sexually abused, prosecutors said.
According to a criminal complaint, Gillis was viewing the images while employed as a teacher. Federal agents said Gillis told them that he fantasized about touching a child but never acted on it. In the complaint, Gillis is quoted by investigators as saying, “I know I shouldn’t do it.”
Duval County Public Schools told News4JAX that Gillis worked for the district from 1991 to 2007.
In court in February, it was revealed that Gillis taught high school before leaving the profession in 2007. After that, his attorney said, he ran a business painting houses and commercial buildings from which he recently retired.