Judge accused of having child porn on home computer

July 21, 2011

Investigators are searching for any evidence that Judge Pat Murdoch had child pornography on his home computer. Police said they have a tape showing the judge forcing oral sex on a prostitute, who told him no. That prostitute told police she saw a partially naked picture of a young girl on Murdoch's computer. Police said Wednesday they are taking those accusations very seriously. The list of items police seized include devices like disk drives, a central processing unit and data saving devices. It's a lot for the police and FBI to sift through. Police and the FBI forensic team are taking these items apart at the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory. Data retrieval experts explain that just about anything can be found on data drives and computers, even stuff that's been deleted. Data Doctors Manager William Cowdry said of data retrieval, "Most of the time you just need the storage media to find data." Right now Murdoch is charged with rape and intimidation of a witness but depending on what they find on the computer, more charges could be added. Albuquerque Police Deputy Chief Paul Feist said, "If we determine that there is inappropriate or illegal images on there, then more charges could be pending." Finding the images is half the job. Police explained that being able to prove that any of those images are of children is much harder. Deputy Chief Feist would not say if investigators have found any nude pictures on Murdoch's computer so far.