Portland-area teacher caught in online police ‘sting’ while trying to meet Bend teen sentenced to 10 years in federal prison

MEDFORD, Ore. (KTVZ) — A Portland-area high school teacher was sentenced Friday to 10 years in federal prison after admitting he traveled to Bend in late 2022 hoping to meet a “child of 15-year-old” he allegedly met online, who turned out to be an undercover Bend police officer, prosecutors said

Edward Hernandez-Corchado, 27, who was a teacher at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison and 10 years of supervised release.

According to court documents, in November 2022, as part of an ongoing online child exploitation investigation, a Bend police officer created and began using a Snapchat account to pose as a 15-year-old child. years.

As the investigation continued, the officer, posing as the child, met an individual online who was later determined to be Hernández-Corchado. Over the next several days, Hernandez-Corchado had sexually explicit communication with the officer, whom he still believed to be a child, and developed a plan to meet the child in Bend.

On November 11, 2022, Hernandez-Corchado traveled to Bend to meet the child and was intercepted and arrested by law enforcement.

Bend police said at the time that the teacher arranged to meet the “teen girl” at the Bend Target store and drove to town “with the intention of committing sexual acts with a minor girl.

After his arrest, Hernandez-Corchado admitted to regularly engaging in sexually explicit communications with underage girls online, possessing child pornography, and previously meeting and having sex with two minors in the Salem area.

On November 19, 2022, Hernández-Corchado was charged by criminal complaint with enticement of a minor. Later, on January 12, 2023, a federal grand jury in Medford returned an indictment charging Hernandez-Corchado with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, and on January 8, 2024, he pleaded guilty to that alone. charge.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Bend Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Judith R. Harper, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Oregon.

Anyone with information about physical or online child exploitation is encouraged to contact HSI at (866) 347-2423 or submit a tip online at report.cybertip.org.

Federal law defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor. It is important to remember that images of child sexual abuse depict real crimes committed against children. Not only do these images and videos document the exploitation and abuse of victims, but when shared online, they re-victimize and re-traumatize child victims each time their abuse is seen. To learn more, please visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at www.missingkids.org.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.