Atlanta Police Tied to Child Pornography Case

ATLANTA, Nov. 29 — The husband of a city police sergeant was arrested on a child pornography charge on Thursday, and federal investigators said police officers had apparently withheld and destroyed evidence in the case.

“These allegations are disturbing,” Chief Richard Pennington said in a written statement, “and the Atlanta Police Department is very concerned about this incident. The alleged actions and any purported failure to take action will not be tolerated.”

“When the incident came to my attention in October,” Chief Pennington added, “I immediately ordered a full inquiry and invited the F.B.I. to assist with the investigation.”

According to federal prosecutors, the sergeant’s husband, Terrill M. Crane, 47, was arrested on a federal charge of producing child pornography after the Federal Bureau of Investigation received photographs that had been held by the Atlanta Police Department since 2000 of Mr. Crane engaging in sexually explicit activity with 11 girls.

Mr. Crane’s wife, Sgt. Tanya C. Crane, 37, who has been with the Police Department since 1993, was placed on administrative leave on Nov. 20 after she told federal agents that she was tipped off in 2003 about her husband’s activity and that she later found and burned photographs of him engaged in sexually explicit conduct with young girls. Investigators said Sergeant Crane had found the photographs in her home.

Sergeant Crane was told by “an unidentified person at A.P.D. headquarters” that officers had photographs of her husband engaged in sexually explicit conduct with the 11 girls, who appeared to be 12 to 15 years old, federal prosecutors said.

A local photo-processing company had turned the pictures over to the department over a period of time from 2000 to 2002, according to the prosecutors’ statement. The department apparently took no action, and Mr. Crane continued to pay girls an undisclosed amount of money for sex, and offered $50 to each girl for referring him to new victims, it said.

One of the girls said Mr. Crane had asked to meet more girls as recently as June or July of this year, investigators said.

Federal investigators said they received the photographs on Oct. 16 from an unidentified person in the Atlanta Police Department.

Sergeant Crane remains on the payroll, said Judy Pal, a department spokeswoman......