The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.
Breaking News BREAKING NEWS: Ferguson attempts suicide after being found guilty on all 32 counts »
Home  >  News  >  Local News MRDD investigation

County drops child porn charges

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

Hot Topics

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

This is not the first time that TAC/Mrdd has fired someone based on an arrest and not a conviction. One guy had 30 years of great service and was fired due to a fight. All charges were dropped against him but they still would not reinstate his job. They don't allow people to have their day in court
another concern
2:09 PM, 5/13/2009
REPORT ABUSE
Yes, because all businesses allow you to look up pornography while you're at work so long as it doesn't involve children! Are you serious? If he was caught looking up any pornography he should resign it's only common sense. As an adult he should have known better than to do such while at work.
Seriously?
11:57 AM, 5/13/2009
REPORT ABUSE
I think this is a case where the authorities "jumped the gun" before investigating the matter and getting all of the facts. They wanted to make an example out of Mr. Gebhart and in the mean time the man not only lost his job but had to "proove his innocence" both to the officials, society, and his family. Shame on you Mr. Kelly & MRDD.
justcallinitlikeitis
11:36 AM, 5/13/2009
REPORT ABUSE
The next question is did the county follow proper protocol when forcing Gebhardt to resign (or be fired) or did they base it on the criminal charges. Will the tax payers have to pay for a poor management decision, and worse, will they have to pay for the very unprofessional action taken by the Sheriff's office? Finally, how do you undo the negative effects that Mr. Gebhardt and his family have suffered?
very concerned
10:19 AM, 5/13/2009
REPORT ABUSE
What ever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?
Marcy
7:28 AM, 5/13/2009
REPORT ABUSE
There are 4 additional comments
SHOW ALL
We welcome your comments. Please remember this is a public forum and behave appropriately. Your comments must conform to our visitor's agreement.

The form has errors highlighted in red, please review these entries and try again!



Comments are limited to 500 characters


500 character limit

Incorrect please try again


These words come from scanned books.
Entering them helps digitize old texts.


Breaking news by e-mail

Start your day with top headlines in your inbox and get breaking news e-mail alerts at any time by subscribing to our Headlines e-mail newsletter.

See Sample | Privacy Policy
SIGN UP
View All

Top Jobs

News photos & videos

Latest News Blog Posts


About our ads

About our ads

Home | News | Sports | Entertainment | Opinion | Life | Recreation | Photos & Video | Jobs | Cars | Homes
Advertising Media Kit | Online Ad Studio | Advertiser Tools | Customer Service | Our Partners | RSS | Site Map

Copyright © 2009 Springfield News-Sun, Springfield, Ohio, USA.All rights reserved.

By using this site, you accept the terms of our Visitors Agreement and Privacy Policy. About our ads. You may wish to note our other business policies.

This website is ACAP-enabled