Fiola was fired and charged with possession of child pornography in 2007, when department IT staff of the Department of Industrial Accidents found such pictures on his working laptop.

According to computer forensic investigator Tami Loehrs, the laptop was configured improperly and thus, could not receive updated virus definitions, which ultimately lead to the infection of the machine.

Fiola received the laptop in November 2006. Previously, the machine had been used by another employee and the only changed made to the system was only the name. Loehrs claims that this change caused the computer to be unable to update the virus definitions.

Once the machine was infected, the virus could easily scan shady websites and fill up the browser’s cache file with hundreds of image.

Loehrs’ version was accepted by the prosecution and all charges against Fiola were dropped.