Bus driver investigated for child porn

MARBLE FALLS, Texas (KXAN) - A Marble Falls ISD bus driver was under investigation for possession of child pornography for two years - much of that while he was driving children to and from school, a KXAN investigation has discovered.

In late August, police arrested Richard Allen Asbill, 62, on a child porn possession charge. The move came more than two years after seizing his personal computer.

For the last 17 months of that investigation, he drove a MFISD school bus.

The KXAN investigation has revealed three major findings:

• An understaffed DPS department that took two years to search Asbill’s computer
• A police department that lost track of Asbill and didn’t know he had begun driving school buses
• A school district that never knew of the investigation

Christa Cates’ daughter rode Asbill’s bus, a middle school and high school route within the Marble Falls city limit. When KXAN told her that Asbill passed DPS background checks despite being under investigation, she was outraged.

"These are my kids,” said Cates, “and I don't want anybody who could do anything like that, who could go into that dark place in their soul, around something so innocent as a child.”

Austin News retraced Asbill’s old route to find parents with concerns about the investigation.

“Two years?” Cates said. “No, that's not right."

Follow the route in the interactive map below, then ride along a portion of that route in the following YouTube video tour:

View Bus route in a larger map

Court documents show that in July 2007, Asbill's wife told Marble Falls Police their computer's history showed he had visited sites about "teens," "father-daughter," and "incest."

She was suspicious it was illegal activity, telling police her husband had been in counseling for a porn addiction for about a year. In a court document, she told police she awoke in the night to find her husband “missing from their bed, only to find him masturbating in front of their computer to pornographic images.”

Police confiscated the computer in August 2007, but did not have the money, resources or training to search it. Instead, lead investigator Sgt. Glenn Hanson turned it over to the free service offered by the Texas Department of Public Safety .

"Would I like for it not to take two years?” Hanson questioned. “Yes. Is there any way we can control that? Not to my knowledge."

DPS officials say it's an arduous process to investigate computers.

"It's a time consuming process to go file by file to try to identify items that might be forensically relevant,” said Brady Mills, assistant director of the DPS crime lab.

DPS fills the void for many smaller agencies without their own lab. Mills said there is a backlog of about 45 cases, each taking about 10 months to complete.

Since Austin News began its investigation, DPS announced a plan to expedite computer crime examinations. DPS Director Steven C. McCraw called the current backlog of cases “unacceptable, especially in cases of child pornography.”

Agencies can ask DPS to put a rush on a particular case if it concerns the safety of children or a public safety threat. Asbill’s job as a bus driver would have qualified for such a rush, according to DPS, which said that request was never made.

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

DPS said it knew nothing about Asbill's job, because Marble Falls Police said nothing about it.

Austin News asked Sgt. Hanson if Asbill had been working as a bus driver during the entire investigation.

“I don't believe so,” Hanson replied, “but I can't speak to that, because I don't know. I'd have to refer you to the school district for that information.”

When asked if he knew what Asbill had been doing during that time, Hanson answered, “No.”

Click here to see the interactive timeline of this case.

After his wife discovered the alleged porn files in 2007, she kicked him out of their house, according to court documents.

In January 2008, six months after police took Asbill's computer, he returned to the job he quit in 2005 - driving a Marble Falls school bus.

Public records show Asbill moved to neighboring Burnet from Marble Falls to live with other family members. Police admitted they lost track of Asbill but defend their work, saying they refused to track him on suspicion alone.

More than a year later, in April 2009, DPS finally confirmed the first proof of child porn on Asbill's computer. Still, police waited another four months before making an arrest or notifying the school district. They said they were waiting on the complete forensic analysis.

“The police department should have told the school district, 'We're investigating this gentleman for this reason. You need to take action,’” said David Chumley, another concerned parent.

The day after the arrest, Superintendent Ryder Warren sent Asbill a termination letter. Warren declined