Former CEO pleads guilty to child pornography

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former publishing executive who was
once a member of New York’s state education board pleaded
guilty on Friday to possessing child pornography, the U.S.
Attorney’s Office said.

Robert Johnson, 60, who was publisher of Long Island’s
Newsday newspaper from 1986 to 1994, faces a maximum of 10
years in prison on child pornography charges and 20 years for
destroying more than 12,000 files from company computers after
learning of the investigation in May 2004.

Johnson resigned abruptly that month as chief executive of
the financial-printing firm Bowne & Co. Inc. and gave up his
seat on New York State’s Board of Regents which oversees
education, citing personal reasons.

During his plea in Manhattan federal court, Johnson
admitted possessing at least two images of child pornography
and using a computer program called “Evidence Eliminator” to
destroy the hard drives on company computers, the U.S.
Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Johnson used Internet aliases to buy membership in websites
that distributed child pornography and downloaded images
including a movie titled “Real Child Rape,” U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement said when he was charged.

Authorities said Johnson erased the computer files after a
Bowne executive told him the company computer was under
investigation.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation has
led to the arrest of thousands of people on child-pornography
charges in recent years. Many were found through the records of
a Belorussian company that handled payments for several
child-pornography sites.

Johnson will be sentenced on October 27. His lawyer was not
immediately available for comment.

“This is personal matter between Mr Johnson and the
authorities and we expect it to have no impact on our business
or operations, said Chuck Burgess, a spokesman for Bowne & Co.