A former Central Michigan University faculty member is scheduled to stand trial in federal court Sept. 27 on one count of possession of child pornography.

Mark Ranzenberger, a former journalism and broadcasting fixed-term faculty member pleaded not guilty to one count of possession of child pornography on June 7 in U.S. District Court in Bay City.

According to the Office of the Court Administrator, Ranzenberger has until Sept. 6 to change his plea. Possession of child pornography carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison.

Ranzenberger was arrested May 20 after police found more than 1,000 images of child pornography on various digital devices in his possession.

Central Michigan University’s investigation of Ranzenberger began after a student reported seeing thumbnails of pornographic images on his computer. Ranzenberger unknowingly projected those images onto a classroom overhead screen, the student reported. Information Technology made a remote back up of Ranzenberger’s computer that day. On March 9, Faculty Personnel Services found images of child pornography and reported the incident to CMUPD.

A CM Life staff member observed CMU Police Detective Michael Sienkiewicz and other officers executing a search warrant on March 10 and search Ranzenberger’s Office. Ranzenberger responded to an email from CM Life seeking comment on March 11 saying he had “no idea” why police removed a computer from his office. He has not responded to requests for comment since.

Police confiscated a university-owned iMac computer, USB external hard drive, zip disk/drive, four 3.5 floppy disks, two USB thumb drives, two Flip video cameras, an IGB hard drive, a Kodak digital camera and SD card, an iPad, and multiple digital storage divices.

A U.S. Secret Service criminal complaint filed May 19 states Ranzenberger admitted to Sgt. Mike Morrow of the CMUPD he had obtained the images from a German website between 2004 and 2008. He said he saved 5 to 10 Powerpoint files into his Dropbox cloud storage account.

According to the complaint, Ranzenberger told Morrow he thought he had “gotten rid of all that stuff.”

The complaint also said he admitted to creating a document detailing how to “groom” a child from birth to age 11 to be receptive to participating in sexual acts. Ranzenberger told Morrow the document was “purely fantasy.”

U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Chris Cruze said Ranzenberger told investigators he had accessed a bulletin board sometime between 2004 and 2006 and downloaded several zip files containing pornographic images of children.

The content found included images of children younger than 12 years old engaged in sex acts and penetration of an infant. Police also found photos taken by Ranzenberger of children in public locations, without the knowledge of the children.

Ranzenberger told investigators that despite looking at the images and writing the grooming document that he never sexually assaulted a child.

Ranzenberger submitted a hand-written letter of resignation to the university on March 21. CM Life obtained the letter through a Freedom of Information Act request.

“I hereby voluntarily tender my irrevocable resignation from Central Michigan University, effective immediately,” the letter read.

On the same day, Ranzenberger submitted a letter of resignation to the Mount Pleasant City Commission. He served on the city’s planning commission.

“I hereby resign my position on the Mount Pleasant Planning Commission. Thank you to the City Commission, the other planning commissioners, the excellent city staff and the community for the chance to serve,” he wrote.

City commissioners accepted his resignation March 28. His term was set to expire in December.

A CMU alumnus, Ranzenberger taught journalism and broadcast and cinematic arts classes at CMU since 1999. He previously worked at the Midland Daily News, Huron Daily Tribune and The Morning Sun.

Assistant Special Agent in Charge Doug Vloto of the U.S. Secret Service said in June the investigation is ongoing, and they are checking various leads, including whether or not Ranzenberger distributed any of the obscene material.

“We’ll go where the evidence leads us,” Vloto said.