Former U-M medical resident facing child porn charges working on plea deal with feds
Stephen Jenson, the former University of Michigan Hospital resident who is facing federal child pornography charges, will return to court in two weeks while he and his attorney consider a plea offer.
Stephen Jenson
Jenson pleaded not guilty after being charged with two counts of receipt of child pornography at a hearing in June. According to court documents, Jenson and his attorney Raymond Cassar asked for more time on Aug. 23 to consider the plea offer from the government that was first proposed last month. He'll be back in a Detroit courtroom at 2 p.m. Sept. 13.
Negotiations for a plea deal started on July 18, court documents show.
Jenson’s accused of having child pornography on a thumb drive that he left in a laptop at the U-M Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department. The charges stem from more than a year ago.
Records show at least eight University of Michigan Health System employees knew about the alleged child porn being found on the laptop by June 2, 2011, but it took until November for the incident to be reported to police. Jenson was arrested and charged with four counts of possessing child sexually abusive material. Those charges were dropped by county prosecutors so that federal charges could be brought against him.
The Pittsfield Township resident was fired from the hospital in late December after he was arraigned on the state charges.
According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, investigators found 97 images and four videos of suspected child pornography on electronic storage devices owned by Jenson. He faces up to five years in prison on each charge, if convicted.
An internal U-M review into the incident was completed in February and called for better communication between hospital security staff and university police. The Board of Regents ordered an external review later that same month and the U.S. Department of Education also reviewed the reporting delay. Both of those reviews are in progress.
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
Basic Bob
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : 2:27 p.m.
How about the eight or more supervisor, legal, and law enforcement types who covered it up? They skate?
justcurious
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : 12:56 p.m.
Another plea deal when they have all of that evidence? The American justice system has gone the way of the American political system. If he hadn't been a doctor would he receive a "plea deal"?
rs
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : noon
Does the prosecutor really need to make a plea deal with this case? They found 97 images and 4 videos with illegal content and they don't think they have enough evidence to go to trial and get an outright conviction?
lumberg48108
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : 2:15 p.m.
Playing devils advocate here but a good defense attorney could argue since the thumb drive was not in his possession when found, anyone could have gotten online and downloaded the materials and left the drive in the port. Chain-of-command type stuff but it could work ...
Greg
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : 11:40 a.m.
Seems sick types work in all fields, hiding themselves well. IE: Doctors, priests, politicians, etc.
RJA
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : 2:33 a.m.
No comment this time around!
Kathy Sabol
Wed, Aug 29, 2012 : 11:31 p.m.
Being that he was a Resident, that means he was in training, so that wouldn't have been him at St. Joes, not as a physician, anyway, not that long ago.
trespass
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : 1:21 a.m.
He is 36 or 37 years old so he could have been a doctor 10 years ago. He may have gone back for more training.
slave2work
Wed, Aug 29, 2012 : 11:19 p.m.
I wonder if this man ever worked in the peds. emeergency at st. joe.. he looks like a doc that saw my girl., maybe 10 years ago?
DennisP
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : 6:39 a.m.
He's a resident. That means he's a recent graduate and wouldn't have been a doctor 10 years ago.
slave2work
Thu, Aug 30, 2012 : 1:54 a.m.
yea probably not..
sultanofswing
Wed, Aug 29, 2012 : 10:44 p.m.
wow what cutting edge stuff