Internet Crimes Against Children - Pornography
Kardasz: Probation supervisor used computers from his workplace for pornography and other misconduct.
Ex-probation chief given 4 months in porn case
Perjury charges won't be filed in abuses involving agency computers
Jan. 6, 2006, Harvey Rice, Houston Chronicle
A man who once oversaw about 40,000 Harris County probationers began serving a four-month jail sentence Friday for a conviction resulting from the discovery of pornography in his office computer. Paul Donnelly whispered "I love you" to his wife, Susan, as he was handcuffed after state District Judge Mary Lou Keel pronounced the sentence. After being fingerprinted by a bailiff, he was led to the County Jail. Donnelly, 52, pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of abuse of official capacity.
The charge came after an investigation into about 1,000 pornographic images and several pornographic movies that were discovered on his office computer and county-owned laptop. After he was led away, a group of former probation employees hugged each other and Assistant District Attorney Donna Goode. Goode had asked Keel to sentence Donnelly to the maximum of one year, saying that he mistreated employees and kept them in fear for their jobs while abusing his authority.
"It's more than a misdemeanor," Goode said. "It's a misdemeanor by somebody in a position of trust." She said Donnelly had made false statements to the grand jury, claiming he accidentally downloaded the pornography and that he was never asked the whereabouts of two county-owned computers that his daughters took to college. Keel had warned Donnelly that he might be charged with aggravated perjury, but Goode declined to press the charge.
Though Donnelly held one of the highest posts in county government, she said, he "is a fraud; he's like a con man ... he is manipulative and he is a liar." ID numbers removed Defense attorney Bob Loper asked the judge for probation and no jail time so Donnelly could remain with his wife and four children. "He is, for all his faults, a person who has accepted responsibility for what he has done," Loper said. "He's ashamed about it, believe me. That's not a reason to pile on."
The sentence came after two days of testimony, including assertions from a district attorney's investigator that many images on Donnelly's laptop appeared to be of girls younger than 17. "When you see these items, you immediately form the opinion that these are very young girls," said Capt. Dan McAnulty, of the public integrity division.
He said he could not prove the girls were younger than 17, but Goode told the judge, "If it is not child pornography, it is darn close."
McAnulty also said investigators discovered that county identification numbers were scraped off of two laptop computers that Donnelly's daughters used in college, one in Florida and the other in Tyler. After that testimony, Donnelly pleaded guilty to tampering with a government record for scraping off the numbers, but prosecutors agreed he would be sentenced only for abuse of official capacity.
The county's state district judges suspended Donnelly on May 12 after learning pornography had been found in his computer. The judges had hired him in late 2003 to oversee an agency that has more than 700 employees and supervises about 40,000 probationers. He resigned in June. Grand jury testimony A grand jury indicted Donnelly in August after two county technicians went to Sheriff Tommy Thomas with disks containing copies of the images found on Donnelly's laptop hard drive, as well as other evidence he misused county computers.
Testimony also disclosed that after the information services division inquired about the two computers used by his daughters, Donnelly said one or more computers may have been stolen from his office. McAnulty testified that he checked police records and found no evidence of a burglary complaint. After the pornography was discovered, Donnelly told information services employees that his 14-year-old son had admitted to downloading the images, according to testimony from Charles Robert Glazier, manager of that division.
Testimony on Thursday also showed that Donnelly had his personal computers repaired by agency employees during working hours and that he downloaded about 3,000 music files without copyright permission on agency computers.
He also used his county computer to purchase peyote, a hallucinogenic plant, on eBay, according to testimony.
harvey.rice@chron.com Retrieved January 9, 2006 from http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3571393