NEWSWEEK – A Florida nurse is facing 86 criminal charges, accused of possessing child pornography while being investigated for hacking the computers of his former workplace, police said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a Thursday press conference that 38-year-old Brandon James Diaz, a registered nurse, worked at Polk State College as an emergency medical services program coordinator.
Diaz was found to possess 75 “very graphic” images of children and infants being sexually assaulted after detectives seized his computer as part of their hacking investigation.
“While we’re doing our due diligence, looking through his computer pursuant to a search warrant, voila! We find child porn,” Judd said.
“If he hadn’t messed up by hacking the computers, we at least at this moment in time wouldn’t have known he was accessing child porn,” he added.
The sheriff said that although Diaz was a married father of four, an investigation did not uncover any evidence that his own children had been abused. A $386,000 bond was set for Diaz during his initial court appearance on Monday.
Public records indicate that Diaz was booked into Polk County Jail on Friday.
He was charged with 75 felony counts of enhanced possession of child pornography, using a two-way device to commit a felony and 10 counts of accessing a computer without authorization.
After Diaz’s employer Lakeland Regional Health fired him earlier this year for failing a drug test, he turned his anger toward Polk State College under the belief that two instructors at the college were responsible for the loss of his job, police said.
The college notified the sheriff’s office after discovering that its network had been hacked … read more.
