A former St. Paul schoolteacher has been sued again – this time by two foster children and their guardians – for allegedly using the children to produce pornography.
Gregg Alan Larsen, 49, of Minneapolis worked as a special education teacher at Central High School until he resigned May 4. Two weeks later, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of producing child pornography.
He pleaded guilty in the criminal case and awaits sentencing.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, alleges that Larsen used two brothers, ages 5 and 7, for pornography. He “engaged (them) in sexually explicit conduct,” created visual depictions of that conduct and distributed the material via child porn websites, the suit says.
The boys, now 9 and 11, lived with Larsen as foster children for about seven months in 2006. They are now with relatives in Washington state.
Patrick Noaker, an attorney with Jeff Anderson and Associates, said the children’s ages make the case especially disturbing.
“This case is, unfortunately, an example of how pornographers are going after younger and younger children,” he said.
The lawsuit targets the recipients of the pornography as much as Larsen, Noaker said. One hundred asyet-unnamed “downloaders” also are listed as defendants.
Once Larsen is sentenced, Noaker said, the attorney will get access to results of the criminal investigation, which will help to identify the downloaders.
“That criminal file is going to be a big starting point,” he said.
In May, another boy and his parents sued Larsen. The boy’s mother provided day care to Larsen’s children and foster children, and the boy, who was about 9 at the time of the 2006 alleged abuse, sometimes spent the night at Larsen’s home.
While the boy was there, Larsen also engaged him in sexually explicit conduct, recorded it and distributed the images, the suit claimed.
Larsen, who is in jail, did not respond to the first lawsuit and has not retained an attorney for the civil actions, court records show.
Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522.