A former youth league sports coach and executive of the American Civil Liberties Union, who has argued against any limits on Internet access in public libraries, is facing a hearing – and the possibility of prison – for having hard-core child pornography.
Charles Rust-Tierney, 51, as WND reported earlier, was arrested in February and was indicted earlier this month on allegations of having what a U.S. magistrate described as "the most perverted and nauseating and sickening type of child pornography" she ever had seen.
Rust-Tierney, who was president of the Virginia chapter of the ACLU until 2005 and served on the group's board until the day he was arrested, now is scheduled to appear in a court hearing on June 1 at which local reports say he is expected to plead guilty to various charges.
Authorities have alleged he used his own credit card and his own e-mail address to access and purchase an estimated $1,000 in graphic and violent child pornography during 2005 and 2006, according to Virginia's North Country Gazette.
Magistrate Theresa Buchanan said the material included an extended video featuring the sexual torture of children, accompanied by a song by the band called Nine Inch Nails. He's been indicted on a count of receiving child pornography and another count of possessing child pornography, and authorities say he could face a prison sentence of 11 to 14 years on each charge. While serving the ACLU, he argued against any restrictions on Internet access in public libraries, claiming "individuals will continue to behave responsibly and appropriately while in the library" so those facilities should provide "maximum, unrestricted access to the valuable resources of the Internet." Read the rest of this article.
