By Linda Wilkins
Staff Writer
Former Baylor and McLennan Community College lecturer Roger Wayne Rouland, 52, pleaded guilty on Thursday to possession of child pornography.
Rouland was arrested by the McLennan Community College police and charged with four counts of possession of child pornography in June 2009.
Chief Larry Radke with the McLennan Community College Police Department said a groundskeeper at MCC found a backpack in a parking lot and turned it in to MCC police June 9, 2009.
Detective Tom Frost, who worked Rouland’s case, said the police assumed that the backpack had been stolen out of a parked car and stowed in the tree line in the parking lot so the thief could return later to obtain it.
While attempting to identify the bag’s owner, police discovered information that indicated the owner of the bag was in possession of child pornography.
Frost obtained a search warrant for the bag and the property in the bag, which included some computer media.
Frost said the MCC PD sent the computer media with the child pornography on it to the Texas Attorney General’s Office of Computer Forensics in Austin, where the forensics team was able to determine Rouland was the owner.
When the MCC PD found out the identity of the bag’s owner, they contacted the Baylor Police Department because Rouland was a lecturer at Baylor at that time.
Baylor Police Chief Jim Doak said the Baylor PD “provided support to them with information” concerning Rouland.
“When we realized who the owner of the bag was, we got a search warrant for his computer at Baylor,” Frost said. “We found nothing.”
Doak also said the MCC PD received a search warrant to search Rouland’s personal residence, which Frost confirmed.
From their search, they found more computer media with child pornography on it, as well as some printed child pornography, Frost said.
Frost said the MCC PD filed four complaints for possession of child pornography. Frost arrested Rouland June 22, 2009.
Rouland was arraigned and posted bond, according to Frost.
The MCC PD contacted the local Federal Bureau of Investigation and they took Rouland’s case to a federal court, which handled the rest of the proceedings.
Rouland was a professor at MCC during summer 2007, Phyllis Blackwood, MCC Director of Human Resources said.
Frost said the police assumed Rouland was applying for a full-time position at MCC when his backpack was placed among the trees.
Rouland’s previous employment was only part-time, according to Frost.
Lori Fogleman, director of media communications at Baylor, said Rouland was a full-time lecturer at Baylor from January 2005 until spring 2009.
On the website BU Books, Rouland was listed as an English and British literature lecturer.
Rouland is to be sentenced March 14, Frost said.
