An Emory University professor allegedly used the school’s Internet connection to download graphic images of minors in his office.
According to a complaint filed last month in U.S. District Court, Rollins School of Public Health associate professor Kevin Sullivan, 60, was arrested June 15 on child pornography charges. He was released from the DeKalb County Jail on Wednesday on $25,000 bond.
Sullivan’s arrest stems from an special investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center dubbed “Operation Amateur Lover.”
Swiss agents seized a server in Zurich, Switzerland, used by an Internet picture gallery site that allegedly contained images of child exploitation, and investigators identified more than 800 internet addresses in the U.S. that had downloaded five or more child abuse images.
One of those addresses was traced by federal investigators to Emory University, which helped officials track down the computer suspected of downloading the images. That computer was later linked to Sullivan, according to the complaint.
On June 15, agents from the GBI served a search warrant on Sullivan’s office at the university and seized two laptop computers, several flash drives, a tablet, an iPhone 6 and an external hard drive that contained “numerous files of child pornography,” according to the complaint, which said images were found of girls as young as 4 to 7 years old in pornographic poses.
When a GBI agent attempted to interview Sullivan, “he invoked his Miranda rights and left the building,” the complaint states.
That same day, DeKalb police detectives went to Sullivan’s home, where they found him allegedly “attempting to delete/destroy evidence of child pornography on digital devices inside the residence,” the GBI agent said in the complaint.
Emory, in a short statement to 11Alive, said: "Emory is cooperating fully with the investigation. We are not at liberty to comment further."
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