Pasco teacher arrested for online sex crimes

New Port Richey, Florida - Attorney General Bill McCollum announced that his CyberCrime Unit arrested a Pasco County elementary school teacher on charges of Internet solicitation of someone he thought was a child.

Joel Matthew Cupp, a teacher at Trinity Oaks Elementary School, was chatting with two different undercover investigators with the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and one with the Attorney General's CyberCrime Unit, believing he was talking to three young teenage girls.

Cupp also exposed himself multiple times over a web cam to the "children."

A search warrant was executed at Cupp's New Port Richey residence and Cupp was taken into custody by law enforcement with the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and members of the Attorney General's Tampa Bay CyberCrime Task Force.

Cupp faces three counts of online solicitation and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition, all third-degree felonies.

If convicted of all charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.