A preliminary report was issued late Thursday from the law firm Mika Myers Beckett and Jones, the attorneys representing Byron and Gaines township.

The townships jointly oversee the fire department and authorized an investigation into alleged computer misuse this fall after auditors reviewing the department's payroll records discovered someone was using its computers to access porn sites.

According to that report from attorney Scott Dwyer, the computer forensics company found "repeated viewing of hundreds, and probably thousands, of pornographic images from the Internet."

From the fire department's office desktop computer, Dwyer says experts found at least 6,800 "unallocated" images of which at least 340 were pornographic.

An "unallocated image" is an image that was viewed on the computer and later was deleted by the user, according to the report. Despite being deleted, a record of the image stays in the computer.

A second computer, a FEMA training computer kept in the fire station, had more than 11,000 unallocated images, of which at least 150 were pornographic. And a third computer, mounted inside a fire rescue truck, also was found to have more than 2,200 unallocated images, including pornographic pictures.

"I am just overwhelmingly appalled at all this. We hire individuals that we think are of the highest caliber and character," said Gaines Township Supervisor Don Hilton.

There is no indication that any of the images on the fire department's computers are of children. No one has been charged with a crime.

The investigation found some porn images were time- and date-stamped.

Consultants have determined that all but one of those images were viewed during a specific window of time: from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Cutlerville Fire Department has three full-time firefighters who work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with other part-paid volunteers assisting at emergency calls when needed during the day and taking over calls in the evening and on weekends.

Michael O'Hearon, an attorney representing the firefighters' union, said he had not seen the experts' report. "The most the townships are ever going to be able to have is circumstantial evidence at best. These computers were not password-protected and access could have been made by anyone."

But Hilton said the preliminary report undermines the theory that someone outside the department was involved.

He vowed the investigation will continue for as long as necessary to determine those responsible.

Byron Township Supervisor Audrey Nevins said the preliminary findings are eye-opening. "With the amount of time this has been going on and the number of sites and images, I certainly don't have any suspicions that anyone from the public was involved. I'm ashamed that employees of the township would be doing this."

O'Hearon said he found it interesting the preliminary report was released just days before the election in which Nevins is the subject of a recall effort, which stems from a past controversy with the fire department.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this is politically motivated," he said.

Also ...

Phoenix Firefighters Disciplined for Porn

The Arizona Republic, 9/9/05 - More than three dozen Phoenix firefighters have been disciplined for inappropriately using the city's e-mail system to forward adult pornography and chain letters, officials said Thursday.

The firefighters, assigned to stations across the city, received the e-mails at work, viewed them and forwarded them to others outside the city, Assistant Fire Chief Bob Khan said. One battalion chief also was disciplined.

"The fire chief feels that this type of behavior is unacceptable and unprofessional," Khan said, "and it won't be tolerated in the department." 

Discipline ranged from written reprimands to three-shift suspensions without pay.

More than two dozen of the 37 firefighters were involved in viewing and forwarding pornography. Those firefighters received the harshest discipline, Khan said. The others forwarded chain letters. The city's e-mail policy says the system is only for city-related business. The investigation into the firefighters' actions began around March when "checks and balances in the city's e-mail system" revealed possible indiscretions, Deputy Fire Chief Mark Angle said.

Suspensions will be served over the next month.

"We live in these fire stations. We sleep there. We cook our meals there. It's really our home for those 24 hours," said Billy Shields, president of the United Phoenix Fire Fighters Association. "Sometimes we get a little complacent that the equipment is the city's. . . . We need to be careful what we use it for."

Shields said all the firefighters involved felt bad about what they did.

"Just the fact that these guys were embarrassed by this whole incident will keep them from doing it again," he said.

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