Stephen Jenson, the former University of Michigan Hospital resident who is facing federal child pornography charges, will return to court in two weeks while he and his attorney consider a plea offer.
Stephen Jenson
Jenson pleaded not guilty after being charged with two counts of receipt of child pornography at a hearing in June. According to court documents, Jenson and his attorney Raymond Cassar asked for more time on Aug. 23 to consider the plea offer from the government that was first proposed last month. He'll be back in a Detroit courtroom at 2 p.m. Sept. 13.
Negotiations for a plea deal started on July 18, court documents show.
Jenson’s accused of having child pornography on a thumb drive that he left in a laptop at the U-M Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department. The charges stem from more than a year ago.
Records show at least eight University of Michigan Health System employees knew about the alleged child porn being found on the laptop by June 2, 2011, but it took until November for the incident to be reported to police. Jenson was arrested and charged with four counts of possessing child sexually abusive material. Those charges were dropped by county prosecutors so that federal charges could be brought against him.
The Pittsfield Township resident was fired from the hospital in late December after he was arraigned on the state charges.
According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, investigators found 97 images and four videos of suspected child pornography on electronic storage devices owned by Jenson. He faces up to five years in prison on each charge, if convicted.
An internal U-M review into the incident was completed in February and called for better communication between hospital security staff and university police. The Board of Regents ordered an external review later that same month and the U.S. Department of Education also reviewed the reporting delay. Both of those reviews are in progress.
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.