Weathersfield man, 59, faces 26 child-pornography charges

Staff report

WARREN

A 59-year-old McKinley Heights man indicted in January on four rape counts involving two young girls has been indicted on 26 charges related to child pornography.

Charles M. Bland of 12th Street, Weathersfield, entered an innocent plea Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to the additional charges, which carry a possible penalty of 45 years in prison if convicted.

Bland has been in the Trumbull County jail since his earlier charges were filed.

The charges are called pandering obscenity involving a minor and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance.

The rape charges, which relate to girls who live near him, carry a possible life prison sentence.

The new charges accuse him of obtaining or producing child pornography, some of it involving the same children as in the rape counts, said Gabe Wildman, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.

The pornography charges involve children as young as 5, said Wildman, who has an assignment within the Child Assault Prosecution Division of the prosecutor’s office to handle prosecutions involving child pornography and recorded sexual abuse of minor children.

The images show nude or semi-nude children in some cases in sexual conduct, sometimes with adults.

In Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Thursday, Judge Peter Kontos set bond at $250,000, which is in addition to the $250,000 in effect for the earlier charges.