COVINGTON, Ky. – Police arrested a college’s director of campus safety on charges of possessing/viewing matter portraying sexual performance by a minor Wednesday.
Robert Marshall, 52, was indicted on 36 counts of the child porn charge, according to Covington police. His bond was set at $25,000 after police arrested him on the Thomas More campus.
The charges stemmed from an investigation that began in January of 2014, police said. A witness reported the material was on Marshall's home computer. Police said the investigation took as long as it did because Marshall was deleting the pictures when police got to him, so they had to recover them.
"There was an image-wiping software running on his computer as they were looking at the computer, which basically there was a software erasing all that data," Covington Police Lt. Col. Brian Steffen said.
He further explained: "Any time that data is wiped form a hard drive, it is increasingly more difficult to retrieve that data, and we had to send it off to be forensically examined and retrieved."
Marshall was the director of campus safety at Thomas More College in Crestview Hills. He joined the college’s staff in 1999 and was promoted to director of campus safety in 2003, according to his biography on the school’s website.
Thomas More College placed Marshall on administrative leave and appointed Steve Johnson as the acting director of campus safety, college President David Armstrong wrote in an email Wednesday afternoon.
College spokeswoman Amy Wagner released the following statement about Marshall's arrest:
In light of a statement recently released from the Covington Police Department, the criminal charges against TMC Director of Campus Safety Rob Marshall, who has been placed on leave, are isolated to his residence and stem from his home computer. At this time, there is no apparent danger to the campus community.
Based on national statistics, Thomas More College has one of the safest and most orderly campuses in the country. We work around the clock to help create an environment that is safe and conducive to the Thomas More College education mission.
Steve Johnson is the acting Director of Campus Safety.
