Issue date: 8/28/08 Section: News

Federal prosecutors announced last week that they are indicting former Marketing professor Scott Ward on two additional child pornography charges.

The United States Attorneys' office has added two counts of inducing a minor to engage in sex to create photos or videos to the three other charges Ward is facing in Pennsylvania.

In March, Ward, 65, was charged with two counts of trafficking child pornography and one count of lying to State Department officials.

Prosecutors allege that Ward lied to authorities in 2006 when he tried to secure a visa for a 16-year-old Brazilian boy with whom he supposedly was having sex.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben, one of the prosecutors in the case, said the investigation of Ward continued after the March indictment.

Prosecutors are confident they can convict him on the additional charges, Witzleben said.

Mark Sheppard, Ward's attorney, did not return calls for comment.

Ward is already serving a 15-year sentence at a low-security western Pennsylvania correctional facility for producing child pornography for importation into the United States.

He pleaded guilty to those charges in February 2007 and was sentenced and levied a $17,500 fine that May.

Witzleben said Ward's age and pre-existing sentence did not factor into the prosecution's decision to add the additional charges.

It is possible that Ward will already spend the rest of his life in prison because of his age.

But Witzleben said this is not necessarily the case, as Ward could be released early from prison for good behavior.

Because he committed the alleged crimes relatively recently, prosecutors also say he remains a predator.

Ward was arrested on Aug. 9, 2006, at Dulles International Airport in Virginia when child pornography was found on his laptop and on DVDs in his luggage.

Pornography was later found in his Huntsman Hall office on campus, leading to additional charges in Pennsylvania.

Ward retired as a professor in 2005, but he continued to teach until his arrest.

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