An Odessa pathologist was arrested Monday after he was reportedly in possession of child pornography.
Paul Houston Coleman, 62, was charged with possession or promotion of child pornography, a third-degree felony. He was also charged with possession of a controlled substance, a third-degree felony, and possession of marijuana, a third-degree felony.
Coleman has been practicing in Odessa for 28 years, graduated from Texas Tech University School of Medicine in 1984 and specializes in anatomic and clinical pathology, the website healthgrades.com detailed.
Investigation into the possession of child pornography started when Microsoft BingImage reported a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Texas Department of Public Safety affidavit stated.
There were reportedly eight tips reported to NCMEC on March 27. The information included the incident time, peer to peer file name, IP address and image of the suspected child pornography.
There were two incident times on Feb. 9, three on Feb. 12 and four on Feb. 14, the affidavit stated. The same IP address reportedly uploaded nine images of suspected child pornography. Those images were uploaded between Feb. 9 and Feb. 14.
The IP address was associated with a Cable One account, the affidavit detailed. On March 29, Cable One stated that IP address reportedly belonged to Coleman.
On Friday, Ector County 446th District Court Judge Sara Billingsley signed a search warrant to investigate Coleman’s home located in the 6700 block of Amber Drive, the affidavit detailed.
DPS special agents and Homeland Security Investigation special agents reportedly executed the search warrant at Coleman’s residence on Monday.
Coleman reportedly didn’t know what specific child pornography search terms meant. Coleman reportedly maintained a ledger near his personal computer that had more than 20 search terms that were commonly associated with child pornography.
Coleman stated he didn’t believe there was anything wrong with looking at images as long as he didn’t hurt a child, the affidavit stated. When authorities asked Coleman if he had intentionally searched for images depicting child pornography, he didn’t want to answer.
Coleman was arrested, charged and transported to the Ector County Law Enforcement Center. He had three bonds totaling $30,000 and posted bail on Tuesday afternoon, jail records show.
