GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Guilford County judge set a $750,000 secured bond Monday for a former Vandalia Christian School teacher accused of using artificial intelligence and photo editing software to superimpose his students’ faces onto child sexual abuse material.
Richard Lynn Upright, 56, appeared in court for the first time following his Feb. 27 arrest on 10 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. A detective testified that investigators ultimately identified 111 confirmed images of child sexual abuse material tied to Upright across seven cyber tips submitted by Google to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
At the hearing, the judge acknowledged the emotional nature of the case but said the bond decision had to be grounded in law and evidence. Citing sentencing guidelines that recommend a secured bond range of $15,000 to $75,000 for a Class E felony — the classification that carries a maximum of 136 months in prison per count — the judge applied that range across all 10 charges and set bond at $750,000…