By Emily Ketterer
TheStatehouseFile.com
For The Republic
INDIANAPOLIS––Prosecutors in Door County, Wisconsin filed 12 new charges against former Franklin College President Thomas Minar Tuesday, accusing him of possessing child pornography.
Minar, 56, was arrested on Jan. 6 on child sex crime-related charges in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin after he allegedly messaged an undercover police officer posing as a 15-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr. At the time, he was charged with using a computer to facilitate a sex crime, child enticement and exposing a child to harmful narrations.
The new charges against Minar came after Sturgeon Bay police searched his personal phone and found several videos and photos of adult and child pornography, according to an amended criminal complaint filed by the Door County District Attorney’s office. The 12 charges of possessing child pornography were filed following the search.
In addition, the investigating officer found several photos and videos of Minar masturbating, the amended complaint also says.
Along with finding the pornography, the officer also discovered a conversation between Minar and another man that went on for about two years. The conversations involved, “sexting back and forth and the exchange images and movies of themselves masturbating” and they referred to each other as “Daddy” and “Son,” according to the complaint.
The two men also frequently talked about having sex with minors, including the man talking about “sharing his son” with Minar, according to the complaint.
The office filed a search warrant for the information on March 11.
“Upon further investigation and analysis of the evidence seized at the time of Mr. Minar’s arrest, we have added 12 counts of Possession of Child Pornography to the charges against Mr. Minar,” said Colleen Nordin, Door County prosecutor, in a statement.
Each of the 12 charges of possession of child pornography is a Class D Felony with a maximum of 25 years in prison each. These 12 charges would be added on to the 68 years Minar was potentially facing in jail time for the initial charges in January.
Minar’s next court date is set for April 21 in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
