Former Pittsburgh DJ charged with child porn

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GavelDetectives with the Allegheny County, PA District Attorney’s Office arrested a former DJ 6/4 on charges of distributing child pornography. Michael H. McGann, 65, of Ohio Township is charged with disseminating and PD of WJAS-AM in 2008. He previously worked as a DJ for WTAE-AM in Pittsburgh, WIXZ-AM in McKeesport and radio stations in Hershey, Butler and Altoona, PA.


McGann was in an online chat room in February 2012 when he told Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Detective Marcus Penwell, a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in Columbus, Ohio, that he had molested his granddaughter and wanted to meet someone “young” because his granddaughter lived in the Philadelphia area, according to the criminal complaint filed last week with Bellevue District Judge Tara L. Smith, reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

McGann told Penwell — who was posing as the father of 8- and 12-year-old girls — that he wanted to perform sex acts with his daughters. He sent Penwell 57 images of child porn, the complaint says.

Six months later, in 8/12, Detective Lynn Havelka of the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office obtained a search warrant for McGann’s home and seized computers. During the interview, McGann told detectives that he never sent child pornography, did not molest his grandchildren and “because he was a Christian he did not view pornography on his computers,” the complaint says.

“McGann was asked if he ever viewed child pornography and he stated he saw a video of child pornography approximately 10 years ago and it disgusted him,” the complaint says.

During a forensic review of the computers, detectives discovered more than 50 images of child porn.

McGann was not immediately able to post bail and was lodged in the Allegheny County Jail to await a preliminary hearing scheduled 6/13.

See the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story here