14 News, The Tri-State's News and Weather Leader-More Details Emerge in Firefighter Arrest for Child Porn

More Details Emerge in Firefighter Arrest for Child Porn

Reporter: Stefanie Silvey

Thirty-year-old Mark Cummings appeared in court Thursday morning charged with four counts of possessing child pornography. A judge entered a plea of not guilty for him.

Deputy prosecutor Donita Farr says even the titles of images found downloaded on a firehouse computer were unimaginable. "They were so bad, I couldn't even say them on TV."

Twenty in all, with words in the titles such as "Preteens", "12 year old boy", "incest", "Six year old girl"...All depicting adults or children performing sex acts with other children. Farr says, "With child pornography, the child is the victim. They are a victim when that photo, or image or moving image was taken, and every time someone else looks at that, that child is re victimized."

Evansville police say they were able to narrow their investigation down to Mark Cummings. He and others were interviewed at the fire station, at least a day before a search warrant was also conducted at his house.

Police say his keypad and other computer components were there, but the tower that carries computer history was missing. Evansville Police Chief Brad Hills says, "We're speculating about why the tower was missing, but obviously it raises red flags for us to go out and specifically look for that type of evidence and for that to be missing, yes."

Fire Chief Kenny Zuber says it's unfortunate when something like this happens, but he's proud of the other firefighters who noticed the problem, and immediately did the right thing. "Don't let the actions of what one person did, distract from all the other good deeds firefighters do for us in our community. "

Donita Farr says Cummings is charged with possessing child pornography, which if convicted doesn't require him to register as a sex offender. "To think that child pornography is a victimless case is not the case at all." However she says, if there had been evidence of involvement or distribution on his part, registration would be mandatory upon release from prison.

Cummings bonded out of jail within fifteen minutes of his arrest. As a stipulation of that bond, he's to have no access to computers. He has been suspended from the fire department without pay.