The NASA scientist caught a lucky break getting 5 years of probation. He remains on a paid leave while the agency reviews the case. The Baltimore City Paper raises some interesting questions about the case in this report.
By Van Smith
Alfred B. Schultz told City Paper in early January, after he was charged for viewing child pornography on his National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) computer (Mobtown Beat, Jan. 8), “I don’t know what happened . . . I may have done some of it, I don’t remember.”
The planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center sounded genuinely in the dark about what prompted the charge, which accused him of breaking a NASA regulation, not a sex crime.
Days later, on Jan. 10, Schultz signed an agreement to plead guilty, thereby admitting that facts in the case are true. The plea agreement [see redacted document below*] states that Schultz’s illegal behavior was observed last August by agents of the NASA Office of the Inspector General who were monitoring Schultz’s computer as he visited “dozens of websites containing images depicting nude children, children posed in sexually explicit poses, and children engaged in sexual activity.” Two of the images Schultz accessed “belonged to photographic series of known child victims,” the plea agreement states.
On Feb. 4, Schultz’s agreement was brought before U.S. District Court magistrate judge Jillyn K Schulze, who accepted it on Feb. 6 and sentenced Schultz to five years of probation. Schulze declined to explain her decision to City Paper.
For Full Story Read Redacted Plea Agreement
