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February 15, 2005
Child porn found at house
Pennsylvania
A contracted bus driver for the West Chester Area School District used an online credit card service to gain access to Web sites containing child pornography and download hundreds of images of underage children engaged in sexual acts, police said.
Charles W. Rice, 43, was charged Friday with possession and dissemination of child pornography. He was arraigned before District Justice Gwen S. Knapp and remanded to Chester County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.
An employee of the Krapf Bus Co., Rice drove part-time for Peirce Middle School and East Bradford Elementary School. Police said there is no evidence that Rice had any improper contact with or possessed any child pornography related to any child on his bus route. He drove 65 Peirce and 56 East Bradford students.
Suzanne Moore, the school district’s director of business affairs, said school officials are "extremely upset and shocked over this incident." She said they never had any complaints about Rice during the two years he drove a bus for the district.
"The district will continue to monitor this situation and follow the investigation closely," read a statement released by Moore. "At the same time, the district will work with Krapf Bus Co. in an effort to prevent a similar occurrence in the future."
Rice was suspended from Krapf, where he worked primarily as a street supervisor, upon his arrest. Chief Operating Officer Blake Krapf said they were in the process of terminating his employment.
Krapf said every employee of the bus company undergoes criminal history, child abuse and motor vehicle checks. He said there were never any complaints about Rice and he is shocked by the charges.
"He seemed to be a community-minded individual," Krapf said.
The investigation of Rice is connected to a larger federal investigation of an online credit card verification service called Sitekey.com. Investigators said the site processed credit card charges for a number of child pornography Internet sites around the world.
Investigators determined that Rice purchased access to known child pornographic Web sites using Sitekey.com. After interviewing Rice at his home in the 1500 block of Valley Road on Feb. 9, police found pornographic images of underage males on his laptop computer, according to reports.
Rice gave permission for police to search the rest of his house. On the third floor, police found two printed images of the genitalia of prepubescent boys, police said.
Rice said he downloaded the pictures from a couple of different Internet sites and paid $60 for access to Web sites containing child pornography. He said he had downloaded about 50 pornographic images on the laptop computer and had also viewed images of child pornography on his desktop computer.
Police seized the computers and found more than 250 images of suspected child pornography on the laptop computer, police said. Twelve more images were found on a CD-ROM taken from Rice’s house, police said.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled Feb. 21 at 9 a.m. before District Justice Grover E. Koon.
Posted by Nealus at February 15, 2005 03:44 PM
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