ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) - A 52-year-old former Oregon state trooper has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges.
David Charles Corkett faces 29 counts of encouraging child sex abuse by possessing explicit images, the Daily Astorian (https://bit.ly/TXwufR) reported.
Corkett had been a trooper since 2001. The police put him on administrative leave in 2012 during a wide-ranging postal investigation. He resigned in 2013.
He was arrested in April in Mono County, California. Authorities there say that a week after he resigned, he shot himself in the chest in an apparent suicide attempt.
After his arrest, he was freed on $5,000 bail.
At a hearing Tuesday, Senior Deputy District Attorney Dawn Buzzard objected to a request by Corkett’s attorney asking that he be allowed to return to California until his next scheduled hearing, Aug. 8.
Buzzard said she worried the district attorney’s office “won’t get him back.”
Judge Paula Brownhill granted the request, but required Corkett to surrender his passport and waive extradition, allowing him to be brought back to Clatsop County.
Corkett was a senior trooper who was based at the Astoria Area Command Office for more than a decade.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service concluded its three-year international investigation in November and said it resulted in 339 arrests and 386 children being rescued.
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Information from: The Daily Astorian, https://www.dailyastorian.com
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