Aurora homeless man busted on child porn charges

AURORA, Ind. - Aurora Police Officer Bill Halbig was on routine patrol Saturday when he decided to check the city's utility building on Manchester Landing.

Officer Halbig knew that homeless people sometimes used a basement crawl space as a shelter, but what he discovered there left him speechless.

A small living quarters had been built in the space -- complete with a raised bed, television, radio, microwave, toaster oven, refrigerator and other electrical appliances.

"There was an extension cord running from an adjacent building into where he was staying to provide electricity," said Aurora Police Chief Bryan Fields.

That was minor compared to what else was found -- hundreds of pictures of adults and young children engaged in sexual activity, 18 pairs of children's panties and a sex toy.

"It's obviously very shocking to us," said Chief Fields. "It's not the type of thing that we want in our community, but obviously it's here."

When Johnnie Cook returned to the room, he was arrested and charged Tuesday with 30 counts of possessing child pornography and one count of theft of utility service.

"To stumble across something like this is pretty exceptional and just good police work, just pro-active police work," the chief said.

Cook pled not guilty to the charges Wednesday before Dearborn Superior Court Judge Gene Stewart and was ordered held on $150,000 cash bond and $150,000 surety bond.  His next court appearance is July 9.

Dearborn County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard said the pictures were very explicit and involved very young children.

"The type of images they are are stuff that you can only imagine in your nightmares," he said. "We're talking about children under 12 in varying degrees of sexual conduct."

Negangard said all the photographs appeared to have come from the Internet and he doesn't believe any of the images were created in Dearborn County.

"The fact that these images are out there is unsettling," the prosecutor said. "The fact that someone would go to such great lengths to collect these items is even more troubling.  Keep in mind that child pornography forever memorializes a child's sexual assault."

Cook told police that he downloaded and printed the pictures in the computer lab at the Lawrenceburg PublIc Library.

Director Sally Stegner said she was shocked, stunned, sickened, disgusted and horrified about what had occurred because of precautions taken to prevent such activity.

She said there are three filters on their system and that computer users have to accept the library's usage policy forbidding the viewing of pornographic material or any other illegal activity.

Plus, a staff member is always on duty in the lab to answer questions from users and monitor activity from a distance.  

Stegner said Cook was a frequent visitor to the computer lab and on occasion had violated the policy.  On those occasions the computer he was using was sent a message indicating that his privileges had been revoked.

"I think the library is doing everything it can," said Negangard.  "I just think it's unfortunate that there are people out there who take their time to use public resources to obtain such disturbing images."

Another thing that Negangard said bothered him was the fact that Cook had children's underwear in his possession, which Cook said he got from the Heart House homeless shelter where he worked.

"I believe that a single adult male living underneath a city building having child underwear for no other reason than to have it it is unsettling," he said, adding that he feels Cook acted alone in the case.

Family members and police confirmed that Cook's first brush with the law as he grew up in Aurora was when he stole a bike at the age of 14. Things have escalated since that time.

"We have had contact in the past for various things -- nothing as significant as what we've had running with him now," said Chief Fields.

Negangard took it one step further, saying, "He has a significant felony criminal history and we intend to file against him as a habitual offender."

If convicted of all the charges against him, Cook could be sentenced to a prison term of up to 12 years.