2008 Woodie Awards
Univ. police officer jailed for child porn
by Jessica Eisenbrey
Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: News
Mark Stallmann, a University Police officer for more than 18 years, was sentenced to 60 days in jail after pleading guilty to charges of downloading child pornography while on the job.
According to James Flatley, chief of University Police, Stallmann resigned in November 2006 after the downloading was discovered.
"Actions by Mr. Stallmann which led to his guilty plea were reported and investigated immediately," Flatley said.
The case was handled by University Police and the state attorney general's office, he said.
Lt. Brian Henry said although Newark Police did not handle the case, when a charge involves a police officer, it becomes a compounded situation.
"Anytime a police officer is involved in a crime, it's a bad situation," Henry said. "You have someone who is supposed to be enforcing and upholding the law involved in breaking the law."
He said these kinds of situations are especially difficult because of how people react to them.
"When a member of one organization is found to be in the wrong, it casts a bad light on everyone in that organization or profession," Henry said. "That's the bad aspect of it. It shows a police officer in a bad light, but hopefully people will see that this is one bad person doing a bad act and it's not a reflection on the entire population of the profession."
Since the University Police force is run similarly to other police departments, he said the headquarters would have computers for investigative purposes that would not have filters used to block certain Web sites.
Henry said the monitoring of these computers is different at every police station.
"Being a police department, there has to be that type of access available," he said. "And how that's monitored and how that's controlled is probably the question. It seems like they did have some type of monitoring control though, because they caught him doing it."
Chrysanthi Leon, professor of sociology and criminal justice, said there is not enough information about sex offenders to understand why they commit such crimes.
According to James Flatley, chief of University Police, Stallmann resigned in November 2006 after the downloading was discovered.
"Actions by Mr. Stallmann which led to his guilty plea were reported and investigated immediately," Flatley said.
The case was handled by University Police and the state attorney general's office, he said.
Lt. Brian Henry said although Newark Police did not handle the case, when a charge involves a police officer, it becomes a compounded situation.
"Anytime a police officer is involved in a crime, it's a bad situation," Henry said. "You have someone who is supposed to be enforcing and upholding the law involved in breaking the law."
He said these kinds of situations are especially difficult because of how people react to them.
"When a member of one organization is found to be in the wrong, it casts a bad light on everyone in that organization or profession," Henry said. "That's the bad aspect of it. It shows a police officer in a bad light, but hopefully people will see that this is one bad person doing a bad act and it's not a reflection on the entire population of the profession."
Since the University Police force is run similarly to other police departments, he said the headquarters would have computers for investigative purposes that would not have filters used to block certain Web sites.
Henry said the monitoring of these computers is different at every police station.
"Being a police department, there has to be that type of access available," he said. "And how that's monitored and how that's controlled is probably the question. It seems like they did have some type of monitoring control though, because they caught him doing it."
Chrysanthi Leon, professor of sociology and criminal justice, said there is not enough information about sex offenders to understand why they commit such crimes.
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