County drops child porn charges

Report finds no evidence that former mechanic used computer to search for child porn images.

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By Bridgette Outten, Staff Writer Updated 8:34 PM Tuesday, May 12, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — Criminal charges have been dismissed against a former Clark County employee who was suspected of accessing child pornography while at work.

A computer forensics report from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation did not determine that Robert Gebhart, 48, intended to search for images of child pornography on a computer terminal at the Clark County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, where he was a mechanic.

Though there were “tons of adult pornography hits,” there were no active child pornography search terms, Assistant Prosecutor Andy Wilson said.

“I can’t prove he was trying to find child pornography,” he added.

Wilson said he is not going to present the case to a grand jury.

Calls to Gebhart for comment were not returned.

Gebhart was arrested by Clark County Sheriff’s deputies in December on two counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.

MRDD employees alerted authorities about child pornographic images found on company computers July 26 of last year. Gebhart, an MRDD employee since July 2006, resigned Aug. 7.

Gebhart had to either resign or be terminated because accessing pornography of any kind is against MRDD policy.

MRDD Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Rousculp said she had not been following the case, but it does make her feel a little better that it appears Gebhart was not trying to access child pornography.

“I’m just glad that we caught that there was a problem,” Rousculp said. “And that we let the authorities take over.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374 or boutten@coxohio.com.

Robert Gebhart

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