A Howard County judge this week sentenced a former St. John’s Parish Day School employee to five years of probation for possessing child sexual abuse materials.

In an agreement with prosecutors, Ellicott City resident Jackie Wang, 18, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor count of possessing child pornography in October after police found an external hard drive hidden under his mattress that contained five photos and five videos of children believed to be from the ages of 5 to 17.

St. John’s Parish Day School officials said at the time of Wang’s arrest in July there was no indication the misconduct involved a member of the school. The Ellicott City institution hired Wang in 2024 as an assistant in the after-school program and summer camp after he successfully completed background checks. The school fired him shortly after his arrest.

County prosecutors sought three years of incarceration with all but six months suspended for Wang. Judge Stephanie Porter’s sentence included supervised probation before judgment and credit for 14 days time served. Wang was ordered to complete treatment as directed by a doctor who completed his psychosexual evaluation. The order forbids Wang from unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 and states he cannot be employed to work with kids.

Wang’s attorney, Brian Thompson of Silverman Thompson, called the sentence “fair and just.” The case stood out, he said, because of the monthslong gap between when police received the tip about Wang and when their investigation began.

Wang was himself a minor when a person on the internet sent the images to him, Thompson said. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted police in November 2024 that child sexual abuse material had been sent to an IP address in Howard. The attorney claims police did not begin their investigation until the following spring, two days after his client turned 18.

“The only logical inference that I can draw is they intentionally waited until he was 18,” Thompson said. “The police department substituted their judgment for the judgment of the state legislature.”

Had Wang been charged as a juvenile, he would not have to register as a sex offender, Thompson said.

In an email Friday, police spokesperson Sherry Llewellyn denied any connection between Wang’s age and the timing of his nine-month investigation and arrest. Within days of receiving the tip, detectives applied for a subpoena for records, she said.

“In digital cases like this, it often takes months to identify email addresses, IP addresses, etc.,” she said. “Search warrants must be issued for all accounts and devices and it is common for detectives to wait months for the data.”