It’s happened to a number of teachers in the past. Personal paperwork gets muddled up among student’s homework assignments and then handed out the next day. Snapshots from their most recent family vacation get mixed into an educational slideshow about rock formations. Usually it’s humorous. And harmless. In the case of Mark Ranzenberger, the pictures that he accidentally showed his class were illegal, and so the fallout has been huge.
The investigation began when one of Ranzenberger’s students reported that he had accessed files from a cloud storage account during class. Apparently thumbnails of pornographic images involving children were visible at that time by the entire class.
Law enforcement searched Ranzenberger’s office and home and allegedly collectively discovered more than 1,000 images of child pornography. Most of the images contained prepubescent girls who were depicted posing naked in sexually suggestive poses or engaged in sexual acts. Possessing or distributing kiddie porn or “child sexually abusive material” is a felony under Michigan law and under the federal law.
In addition to the pictures, officers found “grooming” documents…
Additionally, officers discovered a document about how to groom a child from birth to age 11 for participation in sexual acts. Ranzenberger admitted to writing the document and also to downloading the images from a German website, but told officers that he had never sexually molested or assaulted a child.
Finally, investigators found several images of clothed children that Ranzenberger is alleged to have taken secretly himself, from a distance at public locations. The children in these images were unaware that they were being photographed.
According to the investigators processing the images on Ranzenberger’s computer and disks, the images are predominantly of prepubescent children, including infants. Shortly after the investigation began, Ranzenberger quit his job teaching journalism at CMU with no notice and also gave up his position on the Mount Pleasant Planning Commission.
Although the investigation was started by Central Michigan University Police, it is now being handled by the United States Secret Service. Ranzenberger was arrested and is being held in custody at the Bay County Law Enforcement Center. He was charged with Possession of Child Pornography involving a prepubescent minor or a minor who had not attained 12 years of age, in the United States District Court.
When law enforcement chooses to file charges in the federal system rather than in the state criminal courts, it’s because they are seeking more severe punishment for the accused. Federal sanctions for being convicted of having or making kiddie porn can be far harsher than similar charges under Michigan law according to our criminal defense team.