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SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge on Friday ordered a former Salt Lake City School Board member to serve a 15-year prison sentence for child pornography charges.
Joel Lehi Organista, 30, pleaded guilty to production of child pornography and transportation of child pornography, with the understanding that two additional counts — receipt and possession of child pornography — would be dismissed. The judge sentenced him to 15 years for both charges, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release afterward.
The federal sentence will run at the same time as a state court sentence he is currently serving for soliciting explicit videos from a child. Organista was ordered to serve 15 years to life in prison for aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, a first-degree felony, and a concurrent term of one to 15 years for enticing a minor over internet or text, a second-degree felony, by 3rd District Judge Heather Brereton in January.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a report of a Dropbox account containing suspected child pornography linked to Organista's residence with images of children as young as 5 years old, which led to the charges against Organista.
Police noted that Organista had access to young children in his "position of trust with grades K-12" and that he frequently met children online, solicited nude photographs from them, and had private online video conversation with them.
Organista resigned from his position on the school board a day after he was arrested in June 2021. Members of the Salt Lake City School Board said at the time that no students in school district were victimized by Organista.
The federal court recommended that Organista serve his sentence at FCI Inglewood, a low-security federal correctional institution in Colorado, saying that location would be best for his treatment, evaluation and security needs and would allow for visits from Utah family members. There is no federal prison in Utah.
Organista was elected to the Salt Lake City School Board in November 2020. He also served as the national vice president of youth for the League of United Latin American Citizens and taught a continuing education class at the University of Utah and at Horizonte High School. In 2019 he was named as one of Utah's "20 in their 20s" by Utah Business because of a website he created for educators.
