Professor Convicted In Child-Porn Case Released From Jail

Edward Samuels, the former New York Law School professor convicted of possessing child pornography, was released from jail Friday after serving four months of a six-month sentence at New York's Riker's Island municipal jail.

Samuels pleaded guilty in April to 100 counts of child-pornography possession after two IT staffers at New York Law School discovered thumbnail images of naked children on his computer during routine help-desk service in June 2002. A subsequent search of Samuels' home computer turned up more of the illicit images. Samuels, an expert on copyright law, resigned from his tenured position at New York Law School after pleading guilty.

The case drew added attention because the two IT workers involved, Dorothea Perry and Robert Gross, were fired from their jobs approximately five months after reporting the discovery. Perry and Gross were employed by Collegis Inc., a computer outsourcing company under contract to New York Law School. Officials of Collegis and New York Law School have denied that the employee dismissals were related to the discovery of child pornography.

Perry and Gross sued Collegis and New York Law School in January 2003, charging retaliation for "their discovery of and complaints about" the child pornography, which they contend was a form of sexual harassment under New York City's human-rights law. The status of that suit could not be determined at the time this story was filed.

Collegis, meanwhile, is about to be acquired by SunGard. On March 1, the companies said Collegis will become an operating unit of SunGard's Higher Education and Public Sector Systems business.