Teacher convicted of child porn possession keeps state pension
Maria Cramer of the Boston Globe reports:
Teacher convicted of child porn charges can keep pension
The state’s highest court has decided that a former high school teacher who was convicted of child pornography charges can keep his retirement benefits.
In a ruling Monday, the Supreme Judicial Court said that Ronald T. Garney, a ninth-grade science teacher who was arrested in 2006 for the purchase and possession of child pornography, should still receive benefits because his crimes were not connected to his former job.
“Although cognizant of the severity of the offenses of which Garney was convicted, we conclude that on the specific facts of this case, those offenses neither directly involved his position as a teacher nor contravened a particular law applicable to that position,” wrote Justice Robert J. Cordy.
Garney, who for 20 years was a teacher at the Amherst-Pelham regional school district, pleaded guilty in December 2007 to purchasing and possessing child pornography after authorities found images of child pornography on his home computer, as well as video recordings.
Garney admitted to viewing child pornography since at least 1994.
He was sentenced to 2½ to 3 years in a house of correction and ordered to register as a sex offender.
Comments
I much as I hate to say it I side with the courts here. Otherwise people would be losing their social security benefits, their medicare, and who knows what other programs they have PAID into in the expectation that they would receive what they were entitled to. If the crime was job or school related that makes it a different case.
I agree with Jack. Tried, convicted, punished. I think it is bad policy to deny convicted felons retirement benefits that they have earned. If there were identifiable victims of his crimes, they should be able to sue civilly for damages but here there are none.
He is registered as a sex offender – this makes sense. Perhaps as a convicted felon he cannot vote or hold public office. He should certainly never teach minors in a K12 school.
How vindictive do we need to be with people like this? It is enough if this man leaves children alone and does not patronize an industry that exploits children. I imagine this will always be a struggle for him.