Professor investigated for child pornography

By Erin Brodbeck
Collegian Editor
March 21, 2007

Roderick Vosburgh, who taught history classes at La Salle for several years, was charged with destroying records and computer records to obstruct a federal investigation, according to a March 3 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Vosburgh, 44, was charged after members of the FBI attempted to search his apartment in a child pornography investigation Feb. 27.

In addition to teaching part-time at La Salle, Vosburgh was an adjunct at Delaware County Community College, Camden County College and several other schools while earning his doctorate at Temple University.

According to the Inquirer, the former instructor was one of “several hundred” other suspects investigated after the FBI set up a sting on an actual Web site featuring child pornography.

After tracking Vosburgh through the Internet, members of the FBI knocked on his door and left messages on his phone. They had a warrant to search his apartment.

FBI agent David Desy said that officers heard movement within the apartment that they believed were the sounds of “the charging of a weapon and the loading of a magazine,” according to an affidavit quoted in the Inquirer.

After Vosburgh came to the door, claiming to have been in the bathroom the whole time, agents discovered the pieces of a total of 10 portable hard drives, which they suspected had been unscrewed and smashed with a hammer found nearby.

Additionally, the agents found “dozens of weapons, including an AK-47, shotguns, assault rifles, semi-automatic handguns, revolvers and cartridges,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise S. Wolf said in the Inquirer.

According to Assistant Vice President for Marketing and University Communication Joseph Donovan, after Vosburgh’s Feb. 27 arrest, the University was contacted by the FBI after Vosburgh informed the agents that he had taught at La Salle.

The FBI asked La Salle to cooperate in an investigation that involved searching any computers he may have used to download pornography. At this time, La Salle has not yet heard from the FBI as to whether or not anything was found.

According to Donovan, Vosburgh was kept in custody since the Feb. 27 arrest, but was released on bail after attending a hearing March 2. Vosburgh is currently not permitted in any environment where children under the age of 18 may be found.

Due to this requirement, Vosburgh did not return to teach at La Salle after Spring Break. Arrangements have been made within the History Department, and all of Vosburgh’s classes have been taken over by other professors.

brodbecke1@lasalle.edu