Santa Cruz Police Say Jailed Surfing Teacher Secretly Photographed School Girls

SANTA CRUZ (CBS SF) -- Investigators discovered that a one-time surfing teacher currently jailed on child sex abuse charges took inappropriate photos of young girls at Santa Cruz High School, police said Wednesday.

Santa Cruz police alleged that Dylan Greiner, 38, took pictures of girls while a special guest for "Pool Jr. Guard" programs run by the Seahorse Swim School in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz police Deputy Chief Steve Clark said.

The Seahorse Swim School had been running the programs out of the swimming pool at the campus of Santa Cruz High School, where it rented the pool for swim classes, Clark said.

Santa Cruz City Schools, which oversees the public high school, was not affiliated with the swim school and was not responsible for its employees or volunteers, Clark said.

Greiner, 38, who taught children how to surf at two other Santa Cruz schools, was charged last Wednesday with 28 criminal charges including four felony charges of lewd and lascivious behavior on a minor and felony child pornography allegations.

The operators of the Seahorse Swim School have been cooperating completely with the police investigation, Clark said.

Greiner also allegedly took inappropriate photos of young girls while he taught surfing at the Santa Cruz Surf School, which he owned, and the Boys and Girls Club in Santa Cruz, Clark said.

Police have identified more than a dozen female victims whose photos were taken at the three schools during a review of photographs and videos stored on computers owned by Greiner, Clark said.

Detectives uncovered a cache of more than 500,000 digital photos and videos allegedly taken by Greiner, Clark said.

Police believe that Greiner used a video camera and a still camera with a zoom lens to take inappropriate images of young girls, including their crotch areas, Clark said.

Last Wednesday at Greiner's arraignment on the 28 charges, a judge set bail for the former teacher, held at the Santa Cruz County Jail, at $1 million, according to the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office.

The four counts of lewd and lascivious behavior stem from Greiner's actions involving one girl while she was 14 and after she turned 15, prosecutors said.

Greiner is also charged with five felony counts of possessing
child pornography, 11 felony counts of using a minor to create child pornography, one felony count of distributing lewd material to a minor and two felony counts of duplicating child pornography, according to prosecutors.

He further faces five counts of misdemeanor invasion of privacy
for allegedly secretly taking images of children while they undressed in a changing, fitting or other room, prosecutors said.

After he appeared in Superior Court in Santa Cruz last week, a judge continued Greiner's arraignment hearing to Sept. 10, prosecutors said.

Police have fielded more than 100 inquiries from parents about their children and there may be hundreds of victims in the case, Clark said.

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