A former Stoneham school official accused of posing as a 14-year-old boy online to lure teenage girls into making child pornography videos committed suicide in jail Sunday, Dec. 14, the Essex County Sheriff's Department said.

Channel 5 reported Dec. 15 that prosecutors had alleged that Steven Orloff posed as the teen online to convince young girls to show themselves naked.

Orloff previously worked in the special-education department of the Arlington public schools as recently as 2011.

The former director of a special-needs program in Stoneham was charged last year by federal authorities with production and possession of child pornography.

Orloff, according to the federal affidavit, also allegedly secretly taped "several homemade movies depicting two girls to whom Orloff was related."

He was found hanging in the shower at the Essex County House of Corrections. He was taken to Beverly Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Before working in Stoneham, Orloff held positions in Needham, officials said.

 This story was published Monday, Dec. 15, 2014.