JIM THORPE - Child pornography on the work computer of the former mayor of Coaldale did not appear by accident, a state police trooper testified Wednesday in Carbon County Court.
"This was not an accident and it was not from pop-ups," Trooper Paul R. Iannace, lab manager of the computer crime unit, said on the first day of the trial of Richard P. Corkery, 75, of Coaldale. "There are thousands of pictures and thousands of websites."
Corkery, who is charged with 27 counts of sexual abuse of children-child pornography, frequently conferred with his lawyer, Nicholas A. Quinn, Pottsville, while watching prosecutors present their entire case against him to the jury and Judge Steven R. Serfass.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 9:15 a.m. today with Quinn beginning his case, which he told jurors would include the defendant testifying on his own behalf.
"He's got nothing to hide," Quinn said in his opening statement.
Nesquehoning police have charged Corkery with downloading the pornography on numerous occasions between Feb. 15, 2011, and March 28, 2011, at the WLSH-AM radio station in the borough. Corkery worked at the station as host of The Dutch Trader Show from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday.
" 'Alright, I did look at child porn sites. I did search for boy porn sites,' " Corkery admitted, according to FBI special agent John Bates. "He stated it wasn't his co-workers, it was him who was on those sites."
William Lakatas, station manager for WLSH, testified he learned on March 28, 2011, that there was a problem with the computer.
"There were several images which were obviously pornographic images of some sort" on the computer, Lakatas said.
Lakatas said he fired Corkery the next day but did not immediately notify the police because he did not know the pornography involved children.
However, after receiving an anonymous letter, Nesquehoning police Chief Sean T. Smith obtained and reviewed the computer.
"I saw graphic pictures of young boys," Smith testified.
Dr. Quentin T. Novinger of the Children's Advocacy Center, Scranton, testified 27 of the images were of children. Assistant District Attorney William E. McDonald said in his opening statement that each picture was a separate count.
"It's an essential part of the pediatric process to evaluate children for growth and development," Novinger said of how he could tell the males were under 18.
When questioned by McDonald, Smith said he, Bates and state police Trooper Scott Sotek went on May 16, 2011, to Corkery's house to interview him.
Bates, who testified he did most of the questioning, said Corkery originally said the only pornography he saw on the computer was from pop-ups that he had not sought. Corkery then said he saw child porn but minimized the sites, according to Bates.
"He stated that he didn't want to look at any images ... under 18" and thought all the images he saw were of men over 18, Bates said.
Bates said federal officials have not started a prosecution of Corkery but have not ruled it out. The dual sovereignty doctrine would permit a federal prosecution of Corkery after the Carbon County trial without violating the constitutional bar on double jeopardy.
Iannace testified he inspected the computer, found no damage and then performed a forensic examination of the hard drive.
"Almost all of the evidence I extracted or found dealt with boys," he said. "Most of the websites I discovered dealt with boys."
He also said whoever downloaded the pornography did so intentionally between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Lakatas and Deborah Papanek, the office manager, each had testified Corkery was at the office during that hour preparing for the show.
However, when cross-examined by Quinn, Iannace said he cannot say who downloaded the pornography.
"I can't tell you if Mr. Corkery did it or someone else did it," he testified. "I was told everyone (at the radio station) used the computer."
Iannace did say that he had never seen a child pornography site appear on a computer as a pop-up. He also said that someone does not necessarily have to be a computer wizard to obtain child pornography.