SAGINAW, MI — A longtime Saginaw Valley State University professor will serve five years probation for possessing child pornography.

Saginaw County Circuit Judge Robert L. Kaczmarek on Monday, Feb. 24, sentenced Robert J. Thaler for possessing child sexually abusive material and using a computer to commit a crime punishable by four to 10 years in prison.

Thaler, 72, pleaded guilty to those charges last month and, in exchange, prosecutors dropped an additional such charge each and recommended that Kaczmarek sentence Thaler to only probation.

Thaler's agreement also called for him to not apply for reinstatement to SVSU, where he worked from 1974 until April 2012, when school officials suspended him indefinitely without pay.

Saginaw County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Boyd said his office entered into the agreement because of Thaler's age, his agreement to not apply for reinstatement and the fact that the convictions will place him on the state's sex offender registry. Boyd also noted Thaler's sentences would have run concurrently regardless of whether he pleaded to two or four charges.

Prosecutors initially charged Thaler, an assistant professor of sociology, with nine counts each of the sexually abusive material and computer charges, which carry maximum penalties of four and and seven years, respectively. Prosecutors in October dropped seven counts each.

“There were a lot of images we had, because they were off the Internet, that we were unable to discern who the pictures were of,” Boyd said. “There were only a couple images where we were able to verify they were, in fact, minors.”

SVSU officials in January 2012 “became aware of apparent wrongdoing involving the misuse of a university computer,” school spokesman J.J. Boehm has said. After an investigation, police submitted 41 images of questionable nature to a national registry that determines whether the images are of minors, county Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Barnes has said.

Officials at the registry identified nine pictures as being images that have been submitted from at least one prior case, Barnes said, though the officials could not actually identify the suspected children.

— Andy Hoag covers courts for MLive/The Saginaw News. Email him at ahoag@mlive.com or f

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