ANDOVER — A former Merrimack College dean has been indicted on 37 counts of disseminating child pornography.
Edward Popper, 63, of 120 Dascomb Road, has been free on $10,000 cash bail since his Aug. 14 arraignment in Lawrence District Court on charges of distribution of obscene matter and possession of child pornography.
Popper was caught as the result of online conversations he had with a woman in Pennsylvania who turned out to be a child abuse investigator.
Investigators seized Popper's home computer the night of his arrest, and Popper admitted to possessing 1,000 still and moving images of child pornography on his computer, according to reports in the case.
Popper served as the dean of the Girard School of Business and International Commerce at Merrimack College for five years, leaving that post in 2005.
The Harvard graduate also served as business dean at Bellarmine College and Aurora University, and has held posts at Northeastern University, George Washington University, and Boston University, but was listed as unemployed on court documents.
He faces 10 to 20 years in prison on each count if convicted and up to a $50,000 fine.
