And another one bites the dust!
Cleveland Clinic nurse arrested on federal child pornography charges
A nurse for the Cleveland Clinic was arrested Wednesday and accused of child pornography charges stemming from thousands of images authorities seized from his home.
Robert Stolz, 60, of Cleveland appeared in U.S. District Court via video before Magistrate Judge David Ruiz.
A spokeswoman for the Cleveland Clinic said: “Once we were notified of this situation, the employee was suspended pending the investigation. In his role, he did not provide care to pediatric patients.”
An affidavit filed by John Saraya, an agent of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation assigned to a federal task force of Homeland Security Investigations, says an internet account registered to Stolz “accessed a hidden service website used to send and receive” sexual images of children regularly.
The investigation began after law enforcement officials seized a computer server last year that had hosted the website.
The affidavit said the website was “an online bulletin board dedicated to the advertisement and distribution of child pornography.”
Based on that investigation, authorities noticed one person used the site to “access online child sexual abuse and exploitation material” in May 2019.
Authorities linked the user’s information to Stolz, according to the affidavit. On Tuesday, authorities went to his home with a search warrant and took various electronic equipment. He denied using the website for child pornography.
The document said a preview of one of the devices turned over to authorities included 20,199 file images. Someone deleted the files, the affidavit said, and investigators managed to recover them.
“A preview of the files located showed that the majority were visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including images of infants/toddlers, as well as preschool- and grade school-aged children involved in sexual activity,” Saraya’s affidavit said.
Stolz was released on bond. His attorney, Harvey Bruner, could not be reached late Wednesday afternoon.
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/09/cleveland-clinic-nurse-arrested-on-federal-child-pornography-charges.html