News

November 28, 2009

Ex-Mountain Top factory employee wanted on child pornography charges captured

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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A former employee at a Mountain Top glass factory charged with secretly entering the company and downloading child pornography in July was captured earlier this week on charges including more than 1,400 counts of pornography involving juveniles.

Locust Township, Columbia County, police said Michael Halderman, 38, was apprehended Tuesday at a residence near Carlisle by the Silver Spring Police Department, Cumberland County.

Halderman formerly resided on Old Reading Road near Catawissa, where Locust Township police allege they found hundreds of images of child pornography on computers in the home in July.

Wright Township police and Luzerne County detectives charged Halderman with entering Cardinal Glass in the Crestwood Industrial Park late at night on July 20. Halderman was terminated from the glass factory in January, according to charges filed.

An employee at Cardinal Glass, according to the criminal complaint, caught Halderman in the building using a computer to download child pornography.

Halderman was escorted from the building by an employee who notified authorities.

After the alleged burglary, the criminal complaint says, Halderman told Luzerne County authorities that he views pornography whenever he gets stressed. He said he had a fight with his girlfriend and went for a drive, arriving at Cardinal Glass on Elmwood Avenue.

Halderman said he entered the building and inserted a flash drive with a file transfer program called LimeWire into a computer to download the pornography, according to the criminal complaint.

Luzerne County authorities allege Halderman used a credit card registered to Cardinal Glass to purchase computers and equipment totaling $4,400.

Halderman voluntarily turned over computers from his home to Locust Township police, who allegedly recovered 428 pictures of child pornography.

Locust Township police charged Halderman with 428 counts each of possession of child pornography, sexual abuse of children and obscene and other sexual materials and performances, 141 counts of unlawful contact with a minor, two counts of criminal use of communication facility, three counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and a single count of possession of marijuana.

He was jailed at the Columbia County Prison for lack of $30,000 total bail. A preliminary hearing in Columbia County is scheduled for Dec. 10.

Halderman is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 16 before District Judge Ronald Swank in Wright Township on the charges related to the burglary at Cardinal Glass.

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