$400K bond set for city man arraigned in child-porn case

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A part-time city resident remains in the Mahoning County jail under $400,000 bond after being video- arraigned in municipal court on two counts each of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material and pandering obscenity.

William McCants, 42, for whom an Akron address was listed, will have his preliminary hearing at 11 a.m. next Thursday before Judge Elizabeth Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court, who arraigned him Wednesday.

City police brought him here Tuesday from the Summit County jail in Akron, where he had been kept since mid-April, when Akron police arrested him on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender based on a previous conviction.

McCants, who police said had recordings of himself in sexual situations with children, was arrested while patronizing an adult-entertainment store in Akron.

Earlier this year, McCants’ estranged wife brought police a computer disc with video and still images of McCants and young, nude girls believed to be between age 10 and 12. The material police have reviewed contains images of five girls.