PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A former Adams police sergeant pleaded guilty Friday morning in Berkshire Superior Court to 10 counts of child pornography.
Alan C. Vigiard, 46, appeared before Judge Daniel Ford and pleaded guilty to 10 counts of knowlingly possessing visual material of a child depicted in sexual conduct. A single count of lasciviously posing a child in a state of nudity was dismissed at the request of the commonwealth.
Vigiard was released on personal recognizance pending sentencing, which will take place on June 22 at 3 p.m.
The veteran officer was being investigated after a folder with pornographic images was found on a CD sent to the district attorneys. Vigiard was caught viewing pornography on a police computer at the station on Oct. 29, 2009.
He was placed on administrative leave and then resigned. As of last year, he was receiving retirement benefits accrued during his service but will lose those if the retirement board determines his crimes were linked to his employment.
The investigation was conducted by state police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office and members of the Adams Police Department.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — David B. Harris of North Adams was arraigned on Wednesday in Berkshire Superior Court on single counts of possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography.
He had not-guilty pleas entered on his behalf before Judge Daniel Ford. He was released on $2,500 bail.
The 66-year-old former headmaster was arrested July 18, 2010, after police executed a search warrant at his Marion Avenue home. Police say they found USB drives with pornographic materials and a laptop with links to pornographic sites involving young boys. He is alleged to have disseminated child pornography on Jan. 24, 2010, and to be in possession of the materials on July 18.
State police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office had been conducting a two months-long investigation, with assistance from both the Massachusetts and New York Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, as well as state police with the Middlesex district attorney's office and with the New York attorney general's office.
The Middlesex and New York police were involved because Harris was head of school for the Cambridge Montessori School, a private school for children from preschool to ninth grade, in Cambridge until his arrest and a trustee of one New York private school and former headmaster of another. He spent a decade as headmaster at Pine Cobble School in Williamstown until leaving in 2000.
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