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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
State Worker Probed for Child Porn
By Phil Parker
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — A high-ranking employee of the Children, Youth and Families Department has been placed on administrative leave while he is investigated for allegations involving child pornography.
Mark Edwards of Santa Fe is the deputy director of CYFD's Youth and Family Services branch, with an annual salary of $95,000, according to CYFD spokeswoman Romaine Serna.
He told investigators last week that he has possessed and distributed child porn for years. A search warrant was executed at his home, but he has not been arrested or charged.
The preview of an external hard drive at his home revealed more than 25 files of children as young as 3 exposing themselves or engaged in explicit sexual acts, the affidavit says.
Serna said Edwards' job did not involve contact with children.
"He was basically responsible for the budget and had administrative responsibilities," she said.
But Edwards' résumé, included in a 2005 CYFD congressional earmark funding request, said he had worked with children and their families involved in the juvenile justice and behavioral health systems for 24 years.
He spent 10 years at a "long-term wilderness program for delinquent ... male juveniles in east Texas," including five years in "direct care services," and started his career with CYFD as a juvenile probation and parole officer, the résumé says.
According to a police affidavit for a search warrant filed in Santa Fe District Court last week, an agent with the Attorney General's Office's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in January began to investigate "a distribution of child pornography case regarding an America Online subscriber named Mark Edwards."
On Oct. 6, an AG's investigator and an FBI agent went to Edwards' south Santa Fe home, and he provided written consent for them to search his laptop and an external hard drive, the affidavit says.
"Mark Edwards admitted to possessing, receiving and distributing child pornography for many years," the affidavit says.
That same day, officers executed the search warrant and seized the external hard drive, the laptop, CDs, other computer items and notepad paper with notes.
Edwards was placed on leave Tuesday, and his computer at work is being checked for any inappropriate material, Serna said. He will continue to be paid his salary during the investigation, Serna said.
Edwards has worked at CYFD since 1990.
Calls Tuesday to a number that an Internet database lists as his home telephone were not returned.
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