Perniciaro ‘guilty’ in child porn case
Circuit Judge Steve Simpson on Monday sentenced Frank J. Perniciaro to one year in prison and two years’ probation for the possession of child pornography.
Perniciaro, a 43-year-old Waveland resident and former attendance officer for both the Hancock County and Bay St. Louis-Waveland school districts, pled guilty to the charges on Monday. He was indicted in the case and arrested last November, but remained free on a $25,000 bond until Monday.
Perniciaro resigned his position as attendance officer in July 2001, after it was revealed that he was being investigated by the state attorney general’s cybercrime unit for allegedly having explicit sexual photographs of children stored in the computer at his office at Gulfview Elementary School in Lakeshore.
He had been appointed to the position in 1998 by the superintendent of the state education department. As the attendance officer, Perniciaro was responsible for making sure school-age children in both the Hancock and Bay-Waveland school districts attended class.
He had come under both praise and criticism in late 1999 and early 2000 for strictly enforcing attendance laws and having the parents of truant students arrested.
Source: www.communitypapers.com
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