Police officer booked on child porn count
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INDEPENDENCE — Tangipahoa Parish sheriff’s deputies arrested an Independence police officer on a child pornography count after a secret, internal investigation initiated by the town’s mayor, the Sheriff’s Office and town officials said Thursday.
Brian Louis Burnthorne, 34, 24661 Abernathy, Springfield, who was up for the town’s assistant chief position, was arrested and booked Wednesday on a single count of pornography involving juveniles, deputies said in a statement.
The child pornography images were found on the laptop computer in Burnthorne’s police car, said Dawn Panepinto, sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Mayor Michael Ragusa said Thursday said that one of the pictures included Burnthorne exposing himself with his police badge nearby.
Ragusa said he had suspicions about Burnthorne and asked a computer technician to review the car laptops of all officers, telling them that the town needed computer serial numbers for insurance purposes.
The investigation, which was not known to Police Chief Anthony Maurer at the time, turned up the pictures on Burnthorne’s computer, and the parish Sheriff’s Office was notified, Ragusa, Maurer and deputies said.
Improper images were not found on any other officers’ computers, Ragusa said.
Deputies conducted their own forensic examination of the suspect computer and found the “images depicting minor children being sexually abused,” Sheriff Daniel Edwards said in the statement.
Maurer said that Burnthorne, who had been with the department about a year, was dismissed about 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“This really caught me by surprise, myself. I don’t know how the mayor got his information because he (Ragusa) didn’t tell me anything about it,” Maurer said.
The Town Council was scheduled to consider on Monday whether to make Burnthorne assistant chief, a matter that had been tabled from a previous meeting, Ragusa said.
Deputies have also seized Burnthorne’s office computer, Panepinto said.
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