Post by WaTcHeR on Mar 28, 2006 9:44:16 GMT -5
03/28/2006 - A former Escambia County deputy who served time in North Carolina for lewd contact over the Internet with a teenage girl now faces up to five years in state prison on similar charges here.
Officer Michael Charles Iannone, 67, pleaded no contest on Monday to 1,861 counts of possession of obscene material. Circuit Judge Michael Allen is scheduled to sentence him on May 5.
The charges stem from an investigation that began in April 2003 in Harnett County, N.C. Police reports there show that Iannone identified himself as a 19-year-old man when he began communicating with a 14-year-old North Carolina girl through the Internet.
Although he did not have physical contact with the victim, Iannone coaxed the girl into sending nude pictures of herself to him. He also sent nude photos of men to her, reports state.
In November 2003, he was convicted on six felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor and three misdemeanor counts of dissemination of materials harmful to minors and sentenced to 16 months in prison.
After they were contacted by North Carolina authorities, Escambia County Sheriff's Office investigators seized Iannone's computer hard drive in his home here and found 1,844 digital images and 17 digital movies containing child pornography, according to an arrest report.
He was arrested on the Escambia charges in November 2004, shortly after his release from the North Carolina prison.
Iannone was fired from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office in 1981 after he was charged with sexual misconduct in an unrelated matter.
He was arrested on charges of raping a 16-year-old girl and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The charges later were dropped because the alleged victim's parents did not want her to go through a trial.
Iannone claimed at the time that the allegations were politically motivated because he challenged incumbent Vince Seely for the sheriff's job in the previous Democratic primary.
Officer Michael Charles Iannone, 67, pleaded no contest on Monday to 1,861 counts of possession of obscene material. Circuit Judge Michael Allen is scheduled to sentence him on May 5.
The charges stem from an investigation that began in April 2003 in Harnett County, N.C. Police reports there show that Iannone identified himself as a 19-year-old man when he began communicating with a 14-year-old North Carolina girl through the Internet.
Although he did not have physical contact with the victim, Iannone coaxed the girl into sending nude pictures of herself to him. He also sent nude photos of men to her, reports state.
In November 2003, he was convicted on six felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor and three misdemeanor counts of dissemination of materials harmful to minors and sentenced to 16 months in prison.
After they were contacted by North Carolina authorities, Escambia County Sheriff's Office investigators seized Iannone's computer hard drive in his home here and found 1,844 digital images and 17 digital movies containing child pornography, according to an arrest report.
He was arrested on the Escambia charges in November 2004, shortly after his release from the North Carolina prison.
Iannone was fired from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office in 1981 after he was charged with sexual misconduct in an unrelated matter.
He was arrested on charges of raping a 16-year-old girl and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The charges later were dropped because the alleged victim's parents did not want her to go through a trial.
Iannone claimed at the time that the allegations were politically motivated because he challenged incumbent Vince Seely for the sheriff's job in the previous Democratic primary.