Tavares, Florida – from www.orlandosentinel.com- An Orange County firefighter was arrested and charged with transmission of material harmful to a minor after he chatted with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl and directed that individual to pornographic web sites, according to an arrest affidavit.
It turns out that John G. Kornbrust, 42, was communicating — or “chatting” — with an undercover deputy from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Kornbrust, a lieutenant firefighter, has been placed on unpaid leave pending the results of an internal review, said Lt. Anthony Rios with Orange County Fire Rescue.
During one conversation with the undercover deputy, Kornbrust described himself as a 37-year-old from Orlando and said he was a firefighter. He also sent the undercover deputy a picture of himself in uniform, wearing a department emblem.
In January, Kornbrust asked the deputy posing as a child “if she has ever looked at bad stuff on the computer.” He then provided two web addresses and both were adult pornography sites, according to his arrest affidavit.
Kornbrust also directed the undercover deputy to specific pornographic videos online and asked “to describe what she was seeing,” the affidavit states.
Kornbrust also tried “to call the undercover so they could talk while they were watching pornography together.”
During one contact, Kornbrust told the undercover deputy, “Mmmm, she is good,” while referring to a woman in one of the videos.
Investigators said Kornbrust had 10 “instant messenger” conversations and several phone conversations. The communications began in May 2008.
Kornbrust said he did remember directing the undercover deputy to the adult web sties. “He knew the person he was talking to was 14-years-old but stated he thought she was actually older,” the affidavit states.
Kornbrust turned himself into the Lake County Jail Tuesday morning and was released later in the day.
“As soon as we found out about the arrest our response was to place him on leave without pay pending our investigation,” Rios said today. “We hold our employees to the highest code of ethics.”
Rios said Kornbrust had been with the department for nearly 20 years, starting in August 1989.