Former school nurse sentenced to 24 years following HSI Nashville investigation
NASHVILLE - A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Nashville child exploitation investigation led to a 24-year sentence for a former school nurse in the Middle District of Tennessee on April 3.
A judge sentenced Leon B. Hensley, 42, to 293 months in federal prison on child pornography charges.
Officials arrested and charged Hensley, a former nurse at Northeast High School in Clarksville, in May 2021 following an investigation into allegations that he sent a digital image of a nude adult female to a minor female in the Clarksville area via text message. Hensley had been communicating with the minor female by text and asked her to help him with a photo shoot by posing for photos.
“Mr. Hensley violated unsuspecting students by unlawfully invading their privacy — by using his position of trust as a school administrator to exploit them,” said HSI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Rana Saoud. “HSI will not tolerate these reprehensible actions and will pursue anyone who preys on innocent victims.”
The investigation resulted in a superseding indictment being returned in June 2022 charging Hensley with 25 counts of attempting to produce child pornography and enticing or coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography. Hensley pleaded guilty to all charges in September 2022, prior to a trial which was scheduled to begin the same day.
The investigation included a search of Hensley’s phone, where officials discovered nude images identified as minor female students at Northeast High School. A search of Hensley’s house resulted in the seizure of numerous electronic devices, including a small, covert video camera. The devices contained image files depicting unidentified females in hospital rooms, airports and tanning beds, plus video files that appeared to be upskirt videos of adult and minor females.
HSI found more than 700 image files of minor females in a single bathroom in various stages of undress and using the bathroom facilities. The images appear to have been taken by a hidden or concealed camera, positioned to capture or attempt to capture images of genitalia. The camera was positioned directly across and in front of the toilet seat at toilet seat level. Further investigation determined that the bathroom depicted in the images is the private student bathroom in the nurse’s station at Northeast High School. Other images geolocate to Tennova Hospital in Clarksville, where Hensley was employed prior to the school.
This case was investigated by HSI Nashville, the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and the Clarksville Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Morrison prosecuted the case.
HSI encourages members of the public to report child exploitation crimes or suspicious activity by calling the HSI tip line at 866-347-2423. The tip line is manned 24-hours a day.
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
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