ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – A Seminole County elementary school teacher was arrested Thursday on allegations that she produced and distributed child pornography.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Audra Mabel, who taught kindergarten at Spring Lake Elementary School in Altamonte Springs, was arrested on federal charges.
Seminole County Public Schools said Mabel, 34, has been terminated from her job.
According to authorities, an investigation began earlier this month into Mabel's boyfriend, Justin Ritchie, who is married. A woman said she was recently bathing her three children, including a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old, when one told the woman Ritchie had sexually abused them, according to the criminal complaint.
Sanford police investigated the claims and arrested Ritchie last Friday when he returned home from a business trip, officials said.
Investigators said they found several videos and images on the man's cellphone, including about 10 videos that showed Mabel using a 1-year-old to engage in or assist her to engage in sexually explicit conduct.
He was charged with sexual battery on a child under 12 and booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility.
Mabel was contacted by authorities this week at her home in Seminole County, and she admitted to producing videos with a 1-year-old child in 2017, according to officials. She said she sent them to her boyfriend, who lived in Florida, because they had role-played and fantasized about child sex abuse, the complaint stated. She said they would also read stories to each other about sex between children and adults, the complaint said.
Authorities said Mabel's videos were produced in 2017 in Michigan, where she worked as a first-grade teacher. Other graphic items were also on her phone, including one in which she recorded an upskirt video of herself at the school before showing her face and then her students, the complaint said.
Mabel said she was in a romantic relationship with Ritchie starting around July 2017 but ended it in 2018 because he would not leave his wife, according to the complaint.
Seminole County school officials said Mabel had no previous issues in her personnel file. There is no indication that any of the victims were Mabel's students.
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Editor's note: News 6 was not initially naming Ritchie due to an ongoing investigation, but has since added his name in case there are other potential victims.