Former Ventura County music teacher sentenced for producing child pornography

LOS ANGELES – A Ventura man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison for producing child pornography.

Federal investigators say 62-year-old John Edward Zeretzke, a former music teacher, used the internet to communicate with a female minor and coerce her into producing the pornography in 2017.

Prosecutors say he also preyed on girls in third-world countries, using his music programs as a means to contact and sometimes take advantage of them.

Zeretzke was the owner and operator of Flutes Across the World which traveled across the globe to teach children about music. At the time, Zeretzke was highly regarded as an award-winning composer and musician.

Zeretzke was featured on NewsChannel 3-12 in August 2014 as part of a Flutes Across the World project event at Circle V Ranch Camp in the Santa Ynez Valley. During the event, campers ages 7 to 13 made two folk flutes — one was theirs to keep, the second was part of a 200 flute giveaway Zeretzke was putting together on an apparent goodwill mission to the Philippines later that same year.

In the years since, the veneer of Zeretzke's supposed philanthropic motives has washed away.

The flute program was at the center of a state and federal investigation after allegations surfaced that flutes tainted with bodily fluids, including semen, were being distributed to children.

In July 2020, he pleaded guilty to six counts linked to lewd acts against children and sentenced to 18 years in state prison.

In August 2020, he admitted to producing child pornography and pleaded guilty to the federal child pornography charge.

This 15-year sentence will run concurrently with his previous sentence.

This case was a part of Project Safe Childhood, the Justice Department’s ongoing initiative to battle child exploitation crimes. The United States Postal Inspection Service and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated this case.