Owens prof's porn case under review

4/9/2005

BOWLING GREEN - The Wood County prosecutor's office has started reviewing the case of an Owens Community College computer professor who allegedly downloaded child pornography onto a college computer.

Gary Bishop, an assistant county prosecutor, said yesterday that his office received the Perrysburg Township case this week. He said the matter likely will be presented to a grand jury.

Gene Lapko, vice president of human resources at Owens, suspended assistant professor Hal Hamer indefinitely without pay on March 18. That was the same day administrators learned about pornographic material on the computer hard drive assigned to Mr. Hamer.

Mr. Lapko said the material was discovered by a computer technology worker after Mr. Hamer called for assistance because he was experiencing difficulties operating his computer.

Mr. Hamer, who's worked at the college for about a decade, was suspended under violations of a contract between the college and the Owens Faculty Association.

There is no evidence the Owens professor contacted any children in chat rooms or paid for the pornographic material, the detective said.