https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2020/03/18/thomas-minar-franklin-college-president-faces-new-child-porn-charges/5076056002/

https://archive.vn/wip/GFhSS

Former Franklin College President Thomas J. Minar faces a dozen new child pornography charges after police in Wisconsin said they found disturbing images on his iPhone.

Minar was arrested Jan. 6 after prosecutors said he attempted to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old boy at a McDonald's in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

Court documents said Minar, 56, was exchanging lewd messages through the dating app Grindr with an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old.

Door County, Wisconsin, District Attorney Colleen Nordin charged Minar with use of a computer to facilitate a sex crime, child enticement and exposing a child to harmful materials/narration.

Nordin added 12 new charges of possession of child pornography Tuesday after investigators discovered explicit images and videos of underage boys on Minar's phone.

A forensic analysis of Minar's phone discovered "images of men in diapers and numerous images that (Sturgeon Bay Police Officer Chad Mielke) would consider age questionable," the document said.

The document included written descriptions of 12 photos and videos found on Minar's phone that showed children ranging in age from about 7 to about 16 engaging in explicit sex acts.

Also on the phone, according to the document, detectives discovered text messages between Minar and another man on Dec. 1 in which they discussed molesting the other man's young son.

At the time of his arrest, Minar told officers they would be unlikely to find child pornography on his phone.

"Minar said that if child pornography was found on his phone, it would be from pornography sites he cannot control," according to the document.

The most serious charge Minar faces, use of a computer to facilitate a sex crime, carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison if convicted.

Each child pornography charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years and a mandatory minimum of three years in prison if convicted.

Child enticement carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years and exposing a child to harmful material caries a maximum sentence of six years in prison if convicted. Neither offense carries a mandatory minimum sentence.

In court documents, Minar told investigators "he would have drawn a line between a sexually explicit chat and having a sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy."

Brett Reetz, Minar's attorney, declined comment Wednesday.

"The actions that led to these charges are shocking and counter to all we believe and practice at Franklin College," Jim Due, chairman of the Franklin College Board of Trustees, said in a statement.

The small liberal arts college in Johnson County fired Minar shortly after his arrest. In February, Franklin College trustees tapped Kerry Prather, the long time basketball coach and athletic director, as its new president.