Published Friday, January 30, 2009 6:05 AM
Professor facing porn charges
By MATTHEW WATKINS
matthew.watkins@theeagle.com
DOHRMAN
A professor at Texas A&M's Health Science Center spent part of Thursday in jail after turning himself in to police on charges of possession of child pornography.
Douglas Paul Dohrman was released after posting $35,000 bail and plans to plead not guilty to the seven charges as soon as possible, his lawyer said.
Dohrman, 43, was arrested after a nearly two-month investigation in which authorities found seven photographs and videos containing sexually explicit images of underage girls on his work computer and on an external drive, police said.
Health Science Center officials declined to comment Thursday and refused to disclose the employment status of Dohrman, who is married and has three children. The school's Web site lists him as an associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics.
Dohrman's attorney, Stephen Gustitis, said he believed Dohrman was on paid administrative leave from the school.
"Dr. Dohrman is a very highly respected educator over at the medical school, and he has a high degree of family support and we expect to work very hard to get this resolved," Gustitis said.
Travis Lively, a detective at the University Police Department who investigated the case, said a co-worker at the Health Science Center discovered the files while scanning the iTunes libraries of his fellow workers.
iTunes, a music program, allows its users to view media files on the computers of other users on its network.
"This person clicked on Dr. Dohrman's iTunes folder and found file names that were suggestive of child pornography," Lively said. "He reported it, and eventually the report made it to the Police Department."
Lively said he obtained a search warrant Dec. 3 and confiscated three desktop computers, a laptop and two external hard drives.
He spent time over the next month reviewing the professor's files, he said.
Two photos and one video of children performing sex acts were found on an external hard drive, police said, and two movies and two explicit photographs of children were found on a desktop computer. Authorities didn't say how old the children appeared to be but simply said they were younger than 18.
Lively said investigators did not review any of Dohrman's home computers.
Gustitis said he hadn't had the opportunity to review the allegations against his client.
"Up to this point, from the time the computers were seized, the defense has not had access to the hard drives to do an independent investigation," Gustitis said. "We requested access through the University Police Department and will be conducting our own independent investigation about what was on the computer, if anything, or how it got there."
Law enforcement agencies are not required to share evidence with defense lawyers prior to an arrest. Gustitis said investigators had been cooperative with his requests.
Comments
8 comment(s) found!
Posted by:
On:
Sunday, February 01, 2009 11:24 AM
Comment Title: Hot for Teacher...
A trial will prove innocence or guilt. Nobody ever really knows another person, all of us think we do. Let the facts come out at trial. Odd of Gustitis or the Ealge to remind us all that "Law enforcement agencies are not required to share evidence with defense lawyers prior to an arrest." That's what Mirandizing an arrested person takes care of, right? That's what discovery is about. Most arrested people do not have a defense attorney prior to their arrest. Meanwhile, those of you jumping to the professor's defense would do well to remember that most computers in any workplace are password protected, contain sensitive academic information in this situation, and it would be foolhardy to say the least for this professor to leave his computers or hard drive accessible to any other person and would surely violate university policy. The article does state that some pornography was found on his "work computer" more on an external hard drive. But, please, kid yourselves. Yes wait for the trial or more likely the plea bargain. UPD is not infallible, but a two month investigation would indicate that they proceeded with great caution. Mr. Gustitis is a very good attorney and not inexpensive. This is not going to be a fun time for the professor. And Kudos to TAMU for monitoring staff for abuse of computer equipment. I bet a lot of files got deleted or will be deleted after employees at TAMU read this article.
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Posted by:
Two photos and one video of children performing sex acts were found on an external hard drive On:
Saturday, January 31, 2009 1:54 AM
Comment Title:
That ain't too good. Too bad they did not look at his computer(s) at home.
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Posted by:
Turbo On:
Friday, January 30, 2009 11:55 PM
Comment Title: Benefit of the Doubt
As a former student of Dr. Dohrman, I can say that I know him quite well. He is a dedicated professor and works hard for his students. I've only known him to be a kind person not only to his students, but to his family, and everyone I've seen him interact with. He has sacrificed much time to community events and volunteer charities. We must remember that a person is innocent until proven guilty. This is what separates our country from others. This is strength of a just society. He has pleaded not guilty and perhaps it is important to allow him the time to present his case before we pass premature judgment.
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Posted by:
Bevo On:
Friday, January 30, 2009 12:39 PM
Comment Title: We are the Aggies
Didn't you Aggies just convict a Corps member last year of the same thing? Wow, Aggies do not lie or cheat but they sure tolerate perverts on their campus. Sicko WHOOPERS
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Posted by:
On:
Friday, January 30, 2009 12:30 PM
Comment Title: To: TYPICAL COLLEGE STATION PERVERT ACTIVITY
Police are infallible? Everyone arrested is always guilty? Think logically about this. Plus, how much investigative experience does the university police have? I'm not saying he is innocent or guilty. It is definitely going to be an interesting trial.
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Posted by:
SamSnake On:
Friday, January 30, 2009 12:19 PM
Comment Title: Say Wot....?
iTunes collections on a University computer...?
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Posted by:
On:
Friday, January 30, 2009 11:14 AM
Comment Title: TYPICAL COLLEGE STATION PERVERT ACTIVITY
This happens more in College Station than it seems to happen in Bryan. Quit taking up for the pervert by trying to blame it on students. They would not have locked him up if he did not deserve it. Loser in College Station should be locked up so that he does not hurt any children.
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Posted by:
On:
Friday, January 30, 2009 10:11 AM
Comment Title: Something doesn't add up here ...
Usually people who have child pornography have a lot more than 7 pictures, and the files had names that were suggestive of child pornography?? I would have to take a long hard look at any disgruntled students who want to destroy this guy and prove this guy was the only person who had access to these computers.
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