Former Norman Youth Softball Coach Charged With Child Pornography

A former Norman youth softball coach is now charged with two counts of child pornography.

The investigation began earlier this summer when police received a tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Norman's Park and Recreation Department confirms Mark Simpson coached his daughter's softball team with his ex-wife, all the while police were conducting an investigation on claims he had child pornography.

A three month-long investigation of Simpson stemmed from a tip the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received from Google. Investigators say the technology company reported "child pornography was uploaded to a Google+ photo account."

Police were able to pinpoint Simpson's account to a rural Norman home on E. Robinson.

Investigators searched this home in late July and found three thumbs drives and a laptop. During that search Simpson admitted to police they would find child pornography on these devices.

And after searching through the thumb drives detectives found "32 images... that could clearly [be identified] as child pornography."

At this time police believe the images were downloaded from another source and not local children; relieving news to Norman's Park and Recreation Department who learned of the arrest warrant Monday morning.

“I'm surprised to hear these charges. We had no idea that he might’ve been involved in anything like this,” said Jud Foster, director for Norman's Park and Recreation Department.

Over the summer, Simpson coached a softball team made up of 8 and 9 year olds girls, including his daughter.

Parks and Recreation director Jud Foster says a full background check was performed on Simpson, but at that time his record came back clean. According to Foster no complaints about Simpson were ever made during his time as head coach.

At this time Simpson has not been arrested for the two counts of child pornography. The Parks and Recreation director plans to meet with the City Attorney to figure out how they plan to address this issue with parents from the team Simpson coached.