By Bob Stiles
The Tribune-Review
November 5, 2011
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_765729.html
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| Balazs Tarnai |
A Seton Hill University special education professor indicted on child pornography charges has been suspended indefinitely, university and federal law enforcement officials said on Friday.
Balazs Tarnai, 35, a Hungarian national and assistant professor at the Greensburg university, faces two felony charges involving child pornography, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.
A federal grand jury returned the indictment against Tarnai on one count of receiving material depicting sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of possessing such material.
The first offense dates to March 30. One possession charge covers the period from Feb. 9, 2006, to Oct. 5, 2008, and the other from Oct. 25, 2008, to about March 30, according to the indictment.
Tarnai surrendered to authorities yesterday at his Unity home and was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh in the afternoon. It could not be determined whether he was released. He could not be reached for comment.
Postal inspectors conducted the investigation that led to the arrest.
According to law enforcement sources, authorities suspected that Tarnai possessed child pornography. On March 30, he received video images by mail of children being sexually exploited. Authorities found dozens of other images, both recent and older ones, on his computer, according to the indictment.
The indictment does not indicate whether the pictures and videos were found on a computer in his home or at the university, or how many images were involved. The related search warrant affidavit, which would offer details about the investigation, remained sealed in federal court.
"Today, Seton Hill learned of the indictment of a faculty member of the university," states an e-mailed response from the school. "The faculty member is suspended from the university indefinitely."
Tarnai has taught at Seton Hill since 2008, according to his biography page on the university's website and his page on social networking site Facebook.
Before working at Seton Hill, he taught courses at ELTE, Hungary's only university with a department of special education. He taught students with severe disabilities while working as a graduate assistant at Penn State University.
Tarnai's doctoral research "focused on social-behavioral aspects of socio-sexual education for students with cognitive disabilities," including autism, according to Seton Hill's website.
Tarnai received his doctorate from Penn State. He earned master's and bachelor's degrees at ELTE.
The law provides for a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison on the receipt charge, and 10 years in prison on the possession charges, a fine of $250,000, or both, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
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