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Former O'Hara Councilman Held For Court On Child Porn Charges

May 21, 2014 / 2:03 PM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A charge of aggravated assault was dropped in court Wednesday morning, but a former local-elected official still had to go back to jail.

Alan Templin is charged with multiple child pornography offenses. He was led away in court in shackles and handcuffs.

He was once an O'Hara Township councilman, a former constable, a man who held the same mechanic job for nearly 20 years and a man with no previous criminal record.

Templin said nothing as he was taken into his preliminary hearing by police in Sharpsburg.

Templin's attorney was hoping to get his client's $200,000 straight bond reduced so that he could return to his O'Hara Township home, but that didn't happen for a number of reasons, according to Anthony Marmo, the deputy attorney general from the office's Child Predator Unit.

"We are concerned for the public safety first and foremost; and with that in mind, we opposed any sort of bond reduction based on the threat to neighbors to the gas that emanated through the house," said Marmo.

When investigators arrived at Templin's house earlier this month, they detected a strong odor of gas and discovered he had wedged a knife in the stove to keep the pilot light burning.

Officials feared he was attempting to blow up the house, but Templin's attorney Lee Rothman says he disputes those allegations. He claims Templin just had an oven that didn't work properly.

That same day, investigators seized several handguns, a kitchen knife and a desktop computer.

They say they also located files containing suspected child porn that were being made available for download through a "peer-to-peer network."

"There are computer programs that have given police probable cause to go into my client's house and my client has been cooperative with them," Rothman said.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Child Predator Unit says Templin was looking at children as young as 7- to 9-years-old. It's another reason they fought to keep his bond at $200,000.

Templin's attorney hopes to have a hearing before Judge Jeffrey Manning in seven to 10 days.

Gas Leak