Forest Lake elementary janitor arrested for alleged sexual assault, child porn

FOREST LAKE, Minn. (KMSP) - A custodian at Forest View Elementary School in Forest Lake was arrested last week on two counts of criminal sexual conduct and five counts of possession of child porn. The child porn was found while Brian Jeffery Cleveland, 54, was being investigated for possible sexual assault of his 12-year-old daughter.

On July 23, the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office received a report that Cleveland had sexually assaulted his adopted daughter. During the course of executing a search warrant at his home in Linwood, “a large amount of pornographic images of children” was found on his computer.

According to the complaint, his daughter described Cleveland touching and "making out" with her.  She told medical staff that he began performing oral sex on her on a monthly basis when she was 10, just after moving in with him.

Images found on his computer included naked infants with unidentified adults making sexual advances on the children, the complaint stated. Several of the photos had been accessed and deleted near the time when Cleveland was contacted by law enforcement on sexual assault allegations.

Cleveland was arrested on Aug. 19 -- “When informed he was being arrested for criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography, the defendant denied possession of child pornography,” the complaint stated. He posted bail on Saturday.

"The Anoka County Sheriff's department is conducting a criminal investigation, and our school district is also conducting an internal investigation to determine what wrongdoings, if any, may have occurred," Forest Lake Elementary principal Jeff Ion said in a statement. "At this point, we have no reason to believe that any of our students were involved at all."

The school said Cleveland is currently not working in the district.