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.


 
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