Former MBC professor faces more child porn charges

STAUNTON — A Staunton grand jury Monday certified eight child pornography possession charges against a former Mary Baldwin College professor arrested last year on 26 similar counts.

Chadwick Blackwell, former assistant professor of psychology, now faces 34 charges, each carrying a possible Class 5 felony sentence of one to five years in prison.

Blackwell, 41, of Woodstock, taught at Mary Baldwin from 2002 until his suspension in October 2007, after a student reported seeing images on the professor’s computer, according to the college. He was not tenured.

A single jury trial for all 34 charges is scheduled for Aug. 18 and 19.

According to court documents, the newest charges stem from additional images found on Blackwell’s school-owned computer hard drive, which was seized shortly after the incident came to light.

Prosecutors sent a seat cushion stained with semen to be examined at a state forensic lab in Roanoke, according to court records. Blackwell has filed a subpoeona for college records of any security issues involving his office and documents from his personnel file, as well as e-mails from his account.

Last month, an Augusta County judge sentenced a Stuarts Draft man to 100 years in prison for making and trading child pornography, some of which depicted a toddler. In that case, the defendant was sentenced to one year in prison on each of 67 child pornography possession charges. Those years were suspended.

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