A New Mexico man and former middle school health aide was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography, the DOJ said Tuesday.
Aaron Leon Happy, 42, of Shiprock, “was engaging multiple minors in sexually explicit conversations” on Facebook using the profile name “Aaron Happ,” according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico. Facebook tipped the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in July 2019, according to the DOJ.
The NCMEC passed the tip on to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which identified “Aaron Happ” as Happy, who worked at the time “as a health aide at the Newcomb Middle School located within the exterior boundaries of the Navajo Nation,” the DOJ said. (RELATED: Elementary School Teacher Facing Multiple Charges Of Child Pornography)
A man from Shiprock, New Mexico, who was formerly a middle school health aide, has been sentenced for possession of child pornography. 42-year-old Aaron Leon Happy will face ten years in prison after pleading guilty in February. https://t.co/7UFTNe54yo
— NiQole (@NiQole1776) August 8, 2023
The FBI searched Happy’s office and home in December 2020 and “found a trove of videos and images of children being sexually assaulted on one of Happy’s cellular telephones which he obtained from the internet,” per the statement.
Happy is obligated to register as a sex offender, the DOJ said.
In a similar case, police in Converse, Texas, arrested 27-year-old Mark Mallow, a former band teacher, in July for possessing child pornography and soliciting a minor online for sexually explicit photographs, while out on bond for child pornography-related charges, per KSAT.