School janitor arrested for child pornography in Mesa

MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — A Mesa man who works as a janitor at a high school has been arrested in connection with child pornography.

Steven A. Gardoni, 38, faces four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor following his arrest earlier this week.

Steven A. Gardoni, 38, is charged with sexual exploitation in connection with child pornography.(Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)

On Monday, Yahoo, Inc. reported. to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that a subscriber had uploaded and shared child pornography. The company flagged 11 files in an account registered to a subscriber who lives in Mesa.

NCMEC has the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forceand the case was assigned to Phoenix police detectives. Court documents show the tip was escalated because one of the flagged files was believed to be newly produced or home-made content depicting child sexual abuse against an infant.

Documents say detectives learned the suspect, later identified as Gardoni, had used his email account to send and receive files.

In one case, Gardoni allegedly emailed a QR code to someone else that linked to his Telegram account, where his username was ‘Little Diaper Lover’.

Investigators also determined that he was a night watchman Skyline High School in Mesa.

He was arrested early Wednesday afternoon at his Mesa apartment.

During an interview with investigators, documents show Gardoni admitted to being the owner of the Yahoo account.

Detectives then asked him if he was aware of any “concerning internet activity,” and Gardoni reportedly replied, “it’s about child pornography,” and that they could just take him to jail now.

According to documents, he admitted to using his email address and Telegram account to exchange files depicting child sexual abuse, including photos and videos of babies.

Gardoni reportedly told investigators that all the files involved children under the age of six and that “he is looking at them out of curiosity.”

He was later booked into the Maricopa County Jail.

The principal of Skyline High School sent the following message to families:

Skyline Families,

I’m reaching out to let you know that one of our night security guards, Steve Gardoni, was arrested today by Phoenix Police on child pornography charges.

Your child’s safety is our top priority. The custodian was immediately placed on administrative leave. The district will cooperate with the Phoenix Police Department as much as possible. He has been employed by Mesa Public Schools since 2022. He passed a background check as a condition of employment, and we had no evidence of inappropriate behavior until he was arrested. We will continue to follow all district protocols to ensure the safety of our students.

Thank you,

Do you see a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a current news item? To steer it here for us with a short description.