Palmer

INDIANA, Pa. — The former Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center executive director pleaded no contest to child pornography charges in an Indiana County court Tuesday morning.

Eric Palmer, 41, alongside his attorney Thomas Kauffman, entered his plea before Indiana County President Judge Thomas Bianco.

In entering a no contest plea, Palmer doesn’t admit or deny guilt, but agrees to accept the judgment of conviction.

Bianco set Palmer’s sentencing for Aug. 22, stating that the charges could warrant up to seven years’ incarceration and a $15,000 fine.

In addition, Palmer will have to register and report annually to Pennsylvania State Police for a 15-year period under Megan’s Law requirements, Bianco said.

Palmer was charged in November 2024 with 10 felony charges of child pornography and one felony count of criminal use of a communication facility after an investigation into a tip received through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline.

The investigation led state police in Indiana County to a Google account registered to Palmer.

The affidavit of probable cause lays out the case against Palmer, showing Google reported eight files of child sexual abuse material were uploaded/distributed/saved. One of the files depicts a female victim between 4-8 years of age, fully nude on a couch with her genitalia exposed, according to the investigating officer.

Google provided the user’s name, telephone number, birth date and email address, as well as the IP address and the file name of the image tagged as child pornography.

On July 10, 2024, police served an administrative subpoena on Comcast, noting the IP address was traced back to Palmer, court documents state.

Police received a search warrant on Sept. 4, 2024, and executed it the next day on Palmer’s Church Street residence in Indiana.

Court documents show that Palmer, who agreed to talk to police, said his Gmail account had been “killed” by Google a few months ago, as his account was flagged for sexual exploitation or child pornography when he was uploading all of his files to his Google Drive.

At the time, Palmer told police he never came across child pornography online and there would not be any such files saved or deleted on his devices. He also said there would not be any hidden apps or hidden files on his device.

Police seized multiple devices belonging to Palmer and, after being logged into evidence, they were forensically analyzed by the state police Southwest Computer Crime Unit Lab.

The analysis by the crime unit revealed “multiple files of child pornography” on Palmer’s desktop computer — in a hidden folder on the computer as well as multiple other locations, the report states. Deleted files of child pornography were also found on the computer as well as on two external hard drives which belonged to Palmer, court documents state.

One of those picture files depicted a fully nude female victim between 10 and 12 years old, investigators said.

Palmer, who previously served as director of the Indiana County Technology Center, was hired at GACTC in 2018. He was suspended from GACTC after the charges were filed.

Palmer is no longer listed on the school’s online employee directory.

Nicole Zernick, former assistant director at GACTC, has been serving as executive director while Palmer’s case moved through the courts.

Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.