Ex-state worker pleads guilty in child porn case

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Thursday, July 15, 2004 | 11:39 a.m.

A 41-year-old valley man pleaded guilty Wednesday to downloading child pornography onto the computer at his office -- in Nevada's Division of Welfare offices.

Mark Turner, who is no longer a state employee, pleaded guilty to four counts of possession of visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a person under 16 years of age.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Gerald Gardner said Turner's activity was discovered after technicians were trying to fix what they thought was a virus on Tucker's computer. As they attempted to determine was wrong they came across websites that involved child pornography.

Tucker served as a supply clerk and had his own office equipped with a computer.

Gardner said computer forensics examiners from the Attorney General's office confiscated the computer and after looking at the hard drive found hundreds of child pornography images.

"This is a very disturbing crime, especially when you consider he (Turner) was using the state's equipment to commit it," Gardner said. "The important thing to remember is child pornography victims can be found all around the world. Without consumers of child pornography you wouldn't have the victims."

Gardner said Turner would have faced many more counts in this case, but he could only be charged for the images the state could prove he downloaded himself. Gardner said the forensics team only found 17 images that Turner actively downloaded onto his hard drive. The other images were types of files that could have downloaded themselves.

Gardner said entering the agreement with Turner, which saw his number of charges drop from 17 to 4, made sense because Turner is facing a maximum of 24 years in prison under the deal. Gardner said it would have been difficult to convince a jury to find Turner guilty of all 17 charges and subsequently Turner might face a lesser sentence.

Turner also could be sentenced to probation. Gardener said he would not comment on what sentence the state would argue for at Turner's Aug. 23 sentencing hearing until he had read the Department of Parole and Probation's sentencing recommendation.

Gardner said Turner will have to register as a sex offender regardless of what his sentence is.

Turner was arrested on June 24 and at that time gave authorities permission to search his home. The search resulted in the discovery of more child pornography images on Turner's home computer.

In exchange for his guilty plea before District Judge Nancy Saitta, prosecutors agreed to not charge Turner with the images found on his personal computer -- at this time. Gardner said the state does retain the right to file additional charges if they determine Turner actually made any child pornography, committed sexual acts with a minor or shared images with others.