Sex offender caught viewing child porn at Mt. Pleasant Walmart

A registered sex offender in Mt. Pleasant was arrested this week after police say he used floor-model computers at Walmart to view child pornography at least five times over 10 days this spring.

Store security officials at Walmart on Bluegrass in Mt. Pleasant discovered that child pornography was searched on demo laptops in the store on March, 29, 30, 31 and April 1.

A forensic investigation of the computers by the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office showed the searches lasted between 15 minutes and three hours, according to police documents in the court file.

When police reviewed store security footage, they found that Timothy David Powers, a 38-year-old Mt. Pleasant man, was the only person on the computers during the times of the child pornography searches.

On April 6, store security again saw Powers, this time searching child pornography on two demo tablets in Walmart, according to court documents.

A graphic search history including “age 12 girls naked,” which featured images of nude adolescent girls was discovered by a sheriff’s official who responded to the call.

“The photos showed the young girls’ breasts and their vaginas,” wrote the responding officer in police records. “The naked girls were definitely under 16.”

Powers, who has a 2011 conviction for fourth degree criminal sexual conduct and a 2012 conviction for failing to register as a sex offender – both in Battle Creek – is listed on the state’s sex offender registry as a Mt. Pleasant resident.

He faces one count of using a computer to commit a crime,a four-year felony; and one count of possession of child pornography, a two-year high court misdemeanor.

He remains jailed in lieu of 10 percent of a $50,000 bond which stipulates that he is not allowed internet access while facing these charges, according to court records.

He is scheduled for a preliminary examination in Isabella County on April 26 at 9:30 a.m. in front of Judge Eric Janes.