PORN PROF SUFFERS FALL FROM LAW

Professor Edward Samuels, a 53 year old law professor at New York Law School, has been accused of keeping a private stash of pictures that no one knew about - a stash of kiddie porn.  The well-liked instructor surrendered after school technicians stumbled onto the pictures in early June of 2002 while fixing his office computer.  The tech found several shots of naked girls who were obviously underage in an easily accessible folder in Samuels' Windows system.  The techs alerted the school's dean, who told authorities.  Shock and disgust spread across the campus as students learned the disturbing news.  School administrators have put Samuels on paid administrative leave.

The two computer techies say they were canned from their jobs at the school because they blew the whistle on Samuels.  In a $15 million Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit, Dorothea Perry and Robert Gross claim they were forced out on trumped-up charges after they reported finding the kiddie porn on Samuels' computer.  The professor was on paid leave pending his trial while Rob and Dorothea are the one's who were escorted out of New York Law School by security, said their lawyer, Lou Pechman.

While Samuels was still getting his paycheck from New York Law School, his conviction for possessing the massive stash of child porn had cost him something - his law license.  He was automatically disbarred April 14 when he pleaded guilty to 100 counts of possessing kiddie porn, a felony.  Under state judiciary law, the conviction means the professor isn't allowed to apply for reinstatement to the bar for seven years. Samuels is now finally out of a job.  He turned in his resignation to the Law School April 25.  He was free pending his sentencing where he got a wrist-slap sentence June 24: He'll stay free until the end of October, then serve six months in jail.  The sentence outraged child-rights advocates.

Meanwhile, the two techies who were canned after reporting Samuel are proof that the state's whistleblower law must be toughened, Senator John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) said yesterday.  Perry and Gross were fired by their computer firm, Collegis Inc., before the law school signed a big-bucks contract re-upping Collegis as their technical contractor.  Collegis and the law school have denied the firings were retaliatory but Sampson called them a travesty.  They should have been commended, not terminated, he said.  Sampson said he plans to push for legislation that would give people who report kiddie porn protection under the state's whistleblower statute, which currently only protects those who expose a substantial and specific danger to public health.  Perry and Gross, who are still unemployed, have filed a $15 million wrongful-termination suit against the school and Collegis.

A state appeals court yesterday ended Samuels' 27-year law career, ordering his name stricken from the roll of attorneys authorized to practice law in this state.  Samuels was sentenced this past June to six months in jail and 10 years probation.  The move by the Appellate Division means his days as a lawyer are now officially over - although he was automatically disbarred when he pleaded guilty.

(New York)