A longtime school administrator and teacher from Syracuse, New York, who retired to Fort Lauderdale, is now facing up to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty last week to possessing child pornography, according to prosecutors.
Officials says 75-year-old Frank Richard “Rick” Beyer Jr. was arrested on November 20 after FBI agents received several cyber-tips last April that he had been uploading pictures and videos of young boys engaged in sexual activity.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children passed along a tip from Google that said Beyer had uploaded the content to a Gmail account.
Seventy-Five-Year-Old Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing Child Pornography: Frank Richard Beyer of Fort Lauderdale pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography that included images of boys under age 12 engaged in sex acts. https://t.co/EZTVgZ3Vue
— FBI Miami (@FBIMiamiFL) March 7, 2020
According to court records, the tips included an email address which led investigators to Beyer. They found external hard drives, an iPad, and a laptop computer in his home, along with a DropBox account and Cloud storage platform that contained photographs and videos of children engaging in “explicit sexual conduct with other children or adults.”
Beyer worked as a teacher and administrator for the Syracuse City School District from 1967 until 2002, when he retired to Broward County.
He pleaded guilty on Thursday and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 18 in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.