School Official Quit Prior to Plea Bargain
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A vice principal in the Palmdale School District resigned his position just before agreeing to a plea bargain on a federal charge of electronically transmitting child pornography, school officials said.
Clifford George Doty, 40, of Lancaster, resigned May 31 at Quail Valley Elementary School. He had been on paid administrative leave from the post, which pays an annual salary of $81,933, since his arrest Nov. 10, said Rick Grove, district director of personnel services.
Doty had served as vice principal since October 1999 and had taught in the district since 1983. An investigation conducted by the school district after his arrest found no other complaints against him, Grove said.
In exchange for prosecutors’ dropping two charges, Doty agreed Monday to accept a felony charge of e-mailing a picture of a young girl engaging in sexual conduct to an undercover San Bernardino County sheriff’s detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. Doty was arrested in San Bernardino, where he reportedly had driven to meet with the girl.
Sentencing, to be imposed on reduced charges in the plea bargain, is scheduled for Aug. 20 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
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