Ex-Hospital Official is Going to Prison

Aug. 23–A former vice president at Akron General Medical Center has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

Richard O. Moore, 61, of Coventry Township, was indicted in U.S. District Court earlier this year on one count of possession of visual depictions of minors in sexually explicit conduct, according to a lawyer in the U.S. attorney’s office in Cleveland.

The images were obtained from Moore’s home computer by investigators from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office in 2003 in connection with a case in which Moore was charged with arranging to meet a young woman he thought was a 12-year-old girl.

Moore was convicted in that case in Common Pleas Court on one count of importuning, after a sheriff’s deputy pretended to be the sister of a 12-year-old girl and agreed to meet the former executive at a local restaurant.

Authorities said Moore agreed to pay the sheriff’s deputy $100 for arranging a sexual encounter with the 12-year-old, with additional money promised for future encounters.

Sheriff’s investigators said they found the child pornography images during a search of Moore’s home in 2003 and turned over their findings to the FBI. The FBI’s findings were turned over to federal prosecutors, and Moore was indicted in that case in April.

In exchange for a guilty plea on the Summit County charge, Moore was placed on probation for three years and another charge for compelling prostitution was dropped.

Moore’s lawyer, Larry Whitney, said Moore cooperated fully with federal authorities and agreed to plead guilty to the child pornography charge on Aug. 12.

“He was very glad to put this behind him and get on with his life,” Whitney said.

Whitney said Moore is in a holding facility in Youngstown, awaiting assignment to a federal prison for his 30-month sentence.

Moore was a senior vice president of regional development at Akron General until October 2003, when, according to company officials, his position was eliminated.

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