NEW YORK – RadioShack Corp. said on Thursday its board accepted the resignation of director Ronald Elmquist, [pictured] who has been charged with possessing child pornography.
The company did not give details of the charges, but the Internet docket of the Missouri court where they were filed showed Elmquist has been charged on three counts of possession of child pornography. He entered a plea of not guilty on Thursday and posted bail set at $100,000, the docket showed.
RadioShack said Elmquist told the company that he planned to devote his energies to defending himself against charges filed against him in Clay County, Missouri.
Elmquist’s attorney, James Wyrsch, confirmed the charges and posting of bail and said another court hearing has been set for December 7.
Wyrsch said Elmquist intends to “vigorously contest these charges.”
Elmquist’s resignation was the latest shake-up to hit RadioShack this year.
In July, the Fort Worth, Texas-based consumer electronics retailer installed turnaround specialist Julian Day as chief executive to replace David Edmondson, who had resigned in February after admitting that he lied about his academic record.
On August 18, RadioShack said chief operating officer Claire Babrowski was leaving the company, just weeks after she was passed over for the CEO post.
Day hired former Sears executive, James Gooch, as his chief financial officer, replacing David Barnes, who left shortly after Day’s arrival.
On Oct. 25, RadioShack reported an unexpected third-quarter net loss, hurt by higher costs and lower wireless sales.
RadioShack is trying to stabilize its business by shutting hundreds of stores and firing employees.
From Associated Press: KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Clay County prosecutors charged a 60-year-old Dallas man who sits on RadioShack’s board of directors with three counts of possession of child pornography, KMBC’s Jim Flink reported Wednesday.
Bond for Ronald E. Elmquist was set at $100,000.
Elmquist is also the president and chief executive officer of QualServe Corp. in North Kansas City, which is a supplier to some of the nation’s top food chains, Flink reported.
According to court documents, Elmquist told a computer technician in North Kansas City to reformat his computer’s hard drive because of performance issues.
Prosecutor Daniel White said the computer technician was going through Elmquist’s laptop computer and found images of young girls between the ages of 11 and 13. The images showed nude children engaging in certain sexual acts, according to White.
“Found some disturbing images of child pornography and reported it to police,” White said.
The probable cause claims that the images were downloaded from various Web sites and that Elmquist attempted to access teen porn chat rooms while performing work as a trustee for RadioShack.
Flink reported that Elmquist also sits on or has been nominated to the boards of trustees of Campbell’s Soup and Winn-Dixie.
“First of all, you would think that a major corporate executive for an American company wouldn’t engage in this kind of activity, but secondly, you would think he wouldn’t turn it over to an IT guy — knowing what you’ve been looking at,” White said.
If convicted on all charges, Elmquist could face up to 12 years in prison.