DUBOIS – An Indiana man accused of possessing child pornography waived his right to a preliminary hearing during Centralized Court in Clearfield County.
Allen James Pierce, 34, 665 Hood School Rd., Indiana, was charged after photos of naked, young girls were found in his backpack in March. He remains in custody in lieu of $5,000 bail.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, on March 6, a state parole officer notified police that he had discovered Pierce living at a residence in Treasure Lake. The owner of the home, Johanna Mitchell, had just located several pictures of child pornography at her home. The parole officer was able to take Pierce into custody at Perkins where he was working, without incident.
Officers then went to the residence to speak to the owner. She said in January she got a call from Pierce, who was asking for a ride from Big Run to DuBois. He was homeless and needed to go to a homeless shelter and to Manpower to find work, he told her.
When she picked him up he looked like he had been staying in the woods. She felt bad for him because he said he was living in a tent in a park. She bought him some clothes to wear and said he could stay at her home until he made other arrangements. After he got the job at Perkins, she took him to and from work.
At some point, she began to feel suspicious of Pierce as his behavior changed. She found alcohol in his room and noticed empty water bottles. Some of the bottles contained a green colored substance unknown to her. She found this to be strange, but she didn’t ask him about them. However, she did tell him he had to find other living arrangements.
While he was at work she checked his room. She looked into his backpack and found several pictures of naked, small, pre-pubescent girls. Because she keeps a computer in the spare room where he was staying, she was concerned there was child pornography on her hard drive. She had often seen him using the computer. The photos were printed on the same photo paper Mitchell had for her use and was kept in a closet in the room.
The computer was checked and police were unable to locate any stored or saved pictures of child pornography. They took the five photos found by Mitchell as evidence.