The former assistant principal at Locust Fork High School was sentenced to prison Tuesday for videoing a teen girl through the window of his house while she was there visiting his daughter.
Tim Clevenger, 51, was found guilty in June of one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He was first arrested in 2015 when he was still the school's assistant principal. The incident happened more than a year prior to his arrest, but school IT officials later discovered the video on Clevenger's school computer.
According to arrest affidavits in the 2015 case, Clevenger video recorded the girl while she was a visitor at his home in December 2013. Clevenger stood outside of his home and photographed the nude girl as she prepared to take a shower. Court records showed Clevenger was recording through the blinds, and that the girl didn't know she was being recorded.
Clevenger was arrested again last year on two counts of possession of pornography of a minor and two counts of producing pornography involving a minor. He was arrested Sept. 5, 2017 in Blount County, and released the following day after posting $200,000 bond.
The 2017 charges against Clevenger, who no longer works for the school system, involved a second victim. According to charging documents, he was in possession of videos that showed child breast nudity and genital nudity. The records also stated he made a video of the second victim through the blinds of his home.
The videos were found on the computer that had previously been issued to him by the school system. Until his 2015 arrest, Clevenger has been an assistant principal at Locust Fork since 2004. He was previously principal at Susan Moore High School, but his contract wasn't renewed. In all, he'd been with the school system for 18 years.
The 2017 charges are still pending.
Clevenger was taken into custody following the June guilty verdict. Prior to sentencing, Blount County prosecutors asked that Clevenger sentenced to 40 years in prison because of the nature of the offense, his fiduciary relationship with the victim, and the range of punishment for production of child pornography.
Circuit Judge Steven King sentenced Clevenger to 18 years on the child pornography production charge, and seven years on the child pornography possession charge. The sentences will run concurrent.
"The victim and her family have been subjected to public scrutiny during the last three years. Not for anything the victim did. She did not do anything wrong. But for what Tim Clevenger did,'' District Attorney Pamela Casey said.
"He has now been convicted of his crimes and his sentence has been imposed,'' Casey said. "It is time for him to stop blaming the children he exploited and be held accountable for his actions."