www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-10152004-383251.htmlDelVal professor charged with child porn
By FREDA R. SAVANA
Bucks County Courier Times
An e-mail message referring to "boy bottoms" sent out to the entire staff and faculty of Delaware Valley College led security officials to arrest a 30-year tenured chemistry professor.
Joseph Stenson, 61, of Liberty Place in Doylestown, was charged Wednesday with 490 counts of possession of child pornography after a four-month investigation, said Doylestown Township Police Chief Stephen White.
The professor's computer at the college was seized in June after a security officer, who mistakenly received the e-mail, contacted police to report the alleged pornographic nature of the message.
After realizing his error, police said, Stenson e-mailed an apology to everyone who accidentally got the message.
White said "the sheer volume of what he possessed" made it the largest case of possession he has seen in his 30 years with the police department. He said it was the first he has seen at Delaware Valley College.
Prosecutors are sending the images to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to see if they can help identify the children in the photographs.
Stenson was released on $25,000 unsecured bail and restricted from returning to the school. A spokesman for the college said Stenson has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the charges. Possession of child pornography is a third-degree felony. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of seven years for each count.
White said his department, in conjunction with several other law enforcement agencies, investigated the case, sending the images to the computer forensic office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office before Wednesday's arrest.
The police chief said Stenson showed no remorse when he was arrested.
"He was more embarrassed about sending the e-mail than he was about possessing the child pornography," White said.
A laptop and another hard drive were confiscated from Stenson's home, where he lives alone, police said.
There was no evidence that Stenson produced any of the graphic pictures at his home or the college.
"Nothing in the background is identifiable to the local area or to the school," said White. Stenson is not in any of the pictures, added the chief.
According to the college's spokesman, it's the school's "understanding and belief" that while the charges relate to materials found on Stenson's college computer, they do not show any students or individuals associated with the school. White said he agreed with that assessment.
Staff writer Laurie Mason contributed to this story.