Child porn case reveals flawed system

MARBLE FALLS, Texas (KXAN) - A stalled child-porn investigation of a school bus driver has parents in the Marble Falls Independent School District in an uproar. KXAN Austin News began doing its own investigation two and a half months ago, shortly after police arrested Richard Allen Asbill, 62.

Asbill now faces a third degree felony charge of possession of child pornography. The arrest came in late August just before resuming his reguar duties as an MFISD bus driver for the upcoming school year.

After a hiatus since 2005, he returned to that job in January 2008, six months after police seized his personal computer on suspicion of child pornography. That initial act came two years before his arrest.

The entire case revealed a flawed system in which a school district was left in the dark by local police who - in the interest of protecting Asbill's rights to privacy and innocence until he's proven guilty - did not notify the district that he was being investigated for child porn.

It also revealed a seriously backlogged state investigation agency - the Texas Department of Public Safety - that has so few resources that it took two years to search Asbill's computer.

And it showed a lack of communication between the local and state police, who say they didn't know that Asbill had started driving a bus - after he'd already been charged with child porn.

Since the original investigation aired on Monday, Austin News checked back with the players in this story.

Marble Falls Police refused to comment, would not answer any questions, then hung up the phone.

“Would I like for it not to take two years?” asked Marble Falls Police Sgt. Glenn Hanson in a September interview. “Yes. Is there any way we can control that? Not to my knowledge."

Two years after Marble Falls police seized Richard Asbill's computer, they finally had the proof they needed to arrest him on possession of child porn. They originally handed over the computer to the Texas Department of Public Safety for analysis, which admits it took too long.

DPS also said that had it known the computer's owner was a school bus driver, that would have changed everything.

"We also prioritize cases,” said Brady Mills, assistant director of the DPS Crime Lab. “That's when communication with the local investigators is very important."

DPS said police checked up on the computer four times during the analysis but never mentioned anything about Asbill's occupation.

“If that would have been made apparent to the laboratory,” said Mills, “we could have had that discussion with law enforcement. I'm not sure we had that discussion."

DPS considers "working with children" a public safety threat, one of the reasons it would rush a case. So far, police have not said at what point they knew Asbill was driving a bus or why they never alerted DPS.

Austin News uncovered Asbill had driven a bus for almost a year and a half of the two years he was under investigation.

When asked if he knew what Asbill had been doing during that time, Hanson, the lead police investigator on this case, said, “No."

Police told Austin News in September they didn't feel it was necessary to alert the school about their investigation. But when we spoke to the school superintendent directly after the arrest, he said any employee under investigation for this type of crime would have been placed on administrative leave until the allegations were resolved.

DPS said it agreed with the results of the DPS investigation - two years took too long. The agency is taking steps to speed up its analysis with more examiners and workstations.

So far, MFISD has not spoken about the story, as the superintendent feels it involves a personnel matter. Austin News has learned the district never had any complaints about Richard Asbill, and the Texas Education Agency says the same thing.

Many viewers have left comments on the original story on KXAN.com. One person said, “Many people have been charged by cops only to find that the evidence is lacking or suspect and they are never convicted. Just because the police have charged him, doesn’t mean he is even remotely guilty."

Another viewer said, "There's no reason it should have taken that long and he certainly shouldn't have been allowed to drive children around while under investigation for that."

The MFISD fired Asbill shortly after his arrest.

A Burnet County grand jury met Tuesday, but there's no word if Asbill's case came up. It will be the end of the week before any indication if he was indicted or if his case was pushed to next month.

If convicted of the charge, he could face ten years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.