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Award-winning mystery author Brendan Dubois was charged with possession of child pornography.
The New York Times bestselling writer and former ‘Jeopardy!’ champion was arrested and charged with six felony Class A complaints of possession of child pornography on Wednesday in New Hampshire, Exeter police said.
The author had turned himself in and was arraigned on Thursday.
The 64-year-old “did knowingly possess at least 35 visual representations of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct,” including “images of nude boys and girls under the age of 18 engaging in various sexual acts,” according to a complaint obtained by Portsmouth Herald.
The charges were the result of a four-month investigation by Exeter police along with the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce.
In March, police searched his home in Exeter, where his wife divulged to investigators that the couple had separate computers and a private WiFi network, an affidavit obtained by the outlet said.
On the author’s laptop, more than 5,600 images on the computer were flagged by Axiom as being “possible child abuse content.”
A detective wrote in the affidavit: “I estimate the age of the above-mentioned children to be between infancy to 12 years old.”
DuBois has written 26 novels — the best known are his Lewis Cole mystery series — and has also co-authored books with thriller phenom James Patterson.
His accolades also extend to “Jeopardy!” which he won in 2012, taking home $23,000.
Severn River Books, which published his latest novel “Terminal Surf,” removed his biography from its website as of Thursday afternoon and said it was suspending sales of his books.
“We are deeply disturbed by the serious allegations against Brendan DuBois,” the company said in a statement to CBS News. “While we respect the legal process, we have decided to immediately suspend all promotion and sales of Mr DuBois’ books. We believe these steps are necessary to uphold our values and maintain the trust of our readers, authors, and the publishing community.”
