Music instructor 'an innocent man who was wrongly accused'
By: Adrienne Packer
Review - Journal
Music teacher Ryan Gourley was investigated for more than a year and arrested last summer after he was accused of downloading child pornography on an acquaintance's computer.
Since then, his contract with Cram Middle School was terminated and Gourley, despite proclaiming his innocence, has been ostracized by neighbors, according to his attorney, Robert Draskovich. As far as the community was concerned, he was a child molester.
After a five-hour hearing Thursday, Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo exonerated Gourley on all 16 child pornography-related counts against him, claiming that the state failed to produce enough evidence to send him to trial.
Now Gourley is trying to piece his life back together and mend his tattered reputation.
"He suffered a loss of standing in his profession and the community," Draskovich said. "He is an innocent man who was wrongly accused."
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Jorgenson had little to say about the decision.
"The judge made his decision and that was his decision," Jorgenson said.
The Metropolitan Police Department initiated an investigation against Gourley after a family friend for whom Gourley was house-sitting found child pornography videos downloaded on her computer. When she checked to see when the images had been downloaded, she learned that it was during the time Gourley was at her home.
But according to Draskovich, that wasn't the case.
"We showed that at the time these things were downloaded, he was in Salt Lake City, Utah," Draskovich said.
"She was mistaken. We did an analysis on the computer. We had it down to the second when the images were downloaded, and she was off by one week."
During their investigation, officers also discovered 14 images of child pornography on Gourley's home computer. Draskovich said Gourley knew nothing about the images, but he was able to show that more than 180 visitors, including teenagers, had been at the home when pornography was downloaded between June 2005 and October 2005.
It is possible, Draskovich said, that pop-up porn windows downloaded onto the computer without the user's knowledge while an adult was downloading music.
"How scary is that? You could be held liable for something you didn't even know was on your computer, a pop-up you didn't even know about," Draskovich said.
Through his attorney, Gourley, who began working as a full-time teacher at Cram Middle School in 2004, declined to comment on the dismissal of the charges.
Draskovich said Gourley might lobby the Clark County School District to reinstate his contract or he might pursue a different line of work.
Representatives of the school district said they were unaware of Abbatangelo's decision and declined to comment on the matter Friday.
