INDIANAPOLIS — Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears formally charged Julian Wachner, a former Indianapolis teacher and composer, with 10 counts of possession of child sex abuse material, a level 5 felony and possession of cocaine on Tuesday.
The prosecutor says the multi-agency investigation began when a cryptocurrency company notified authorities that a user was using their currency to purchase child pornography.
“The allegations in this case include the horrifying and unimaginable sexual abuse of children, including infants,” said Prosecutor Ryan Mears in a statement. “We will aggressively prosecute the defendant’s alleged purchase and possession of disturbing child sex abuse material.”
Court documents indicate that IMPD detectives from the Internet Crimes Against Children began their investigation on August 11, looking into a tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children.
The NCMEC was alerted on August 8 by Robinhood, an electronic financial trading app, of the suspected use of cryptocurrency to purchase child pornography.
According to the court documents, Robinhood reported that Wachner had transferred funds to a specific dark website, which is known as a major provider of child abuse material on the "dark web."
Websites on the "dark web" are intentionally hidden from typical search engines like Google and require specific software to access.
According to the documents, the website was known to investigators as a website that sells child sex abuse material.
Investigators were able to identify three suspicious purchases after reviewing and uncovering blockchain transactions between August 22, 2024, and February 14, 2025, totaling $840.60.
Court documents say on August 20, investigators submitted a search warrant to search and gain access to Wachner's devices. On the same day, officers stopped Wachner at a traffic stop and brought him in for questioning.
Over the course of the questioning, Wachner admitted to the police that he visited the dark website and was aware that the website contained child sexual abuse material. He further admitted that he had downloaded and deleted material he had purchased over the course of several years.
The documents said that Wachner informed detectives that they would find a laptop located in the bedroom closet that would contain the explicit materials, "a substantial quantity of cocaine," and a hard drive located in the entrance of the residence that serves as a "mirror" of what was found on the laptop.
Wachner also informed detectives that the material in his possession contained minors with ages ranging from one to 16 years old, but preferred material involving minors between the ages of six and 13.
Detectives began searching Wachner's house and found and seized several devices relevant to the case. Investigators found dozens of files with more than two hours of material.
Booking records indicate Wachner was booked at the Marion County Jail on August 20 and was released on August 23.
At the time of the arrest, Wachner was employed at Invent Learning Hub. The school released a statement at the time of his arrest, saying that no students were impacted by his actions and he was placed on administrative leave.
The school confirmed with WRTV on Tuesday that he has been fired, effective immediately.
"Effective immediately, Julian Wachner is no longer an employee of Invent Learning Hub.
We want to be transparent with our community: at no time were our employees or board members aware that Mr. Wachner was under investigation, nor did we have knowledge of the actions that led to this situation. As part of our standard hiring process, we conducted thorough background checks in accordance with our established policies.
The safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priority. We are closely monitoring this situation and taking all necessary steps to ensure that these circumstances do not impact our students or our educational environment.
We are committed to maintaining the trust our families place in us and will continue to uphold the highest standards in our hiring and operational practices."
Before his time in Indianapolis, Wachner worked as a composer. According to his website, he has an extensive catalog and articles have been written about his work in several publications, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post.
Wachner appeared in court on Tuesday, and a jury trial is set to begin on October 10.
