A former official with an Ohio high school's music booster club pleaded not guilty in Orange County Superior Court this week to possessing child pornography.
William F. Blackhall , 50, of Columbus, Ohio, was arrested in Newport Beach in July when a colleague on a business trip alerted authorities there was child porn on Blackhall's laptop.
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An Orange County Sheriff's Department investigation uncovered more than 1,000 pictures, images and videos
of young boys engaged in sexual conduct with other young boys, according to authorities.
Blackhall was arrested on July 25 and released after posting a $20,000 bond. He had been the volunteer vice president of the Hilliard Darby High School Music
Boosters until Aug. 2, when school officials were notified of his arrest
in California.
The Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) filed one
felony count of possession and control of child pornography against him in late August. He pleaded not guilty on Monday and has a pre-trial hearing up next in October.
He faces up to three years in state prison with a conviction, according to the OCDA.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.