WSU cop’s alleged viewing of porn investigated

PULLMAN – Investigators at Washington State University are looking into allegations that campus Police Chief Steve Hansen may have used work computers to look at sexually explicit photographs, a school spokesman said Thursday.

“The investigation is nearly completed,” said WSU spokesman Rob Strenge. “We could have a report as early as next week.”

Hansen remains on the job, although he is reportedly in California this week, Strenge said. A voice mail message left at his office on Thursday was not immediately returned.

Few details about the investigation by WSU’s Internal Auditing Office have emerged.

Strenge said looking at sexually explicit pictures of women on a WSU computer would be a violation of the school’s code of ethics. Penalties could range from a reprimand to firing, depending on circumstances, he said.

He could not say how the matter first came to the attention of school administrators.

However, WSU’s campus newspaper, The Daily Evergreen, reported Wednesday that Hansen and another officer admitted in legal depositions to using their office computers to view pornographic images.

The depositions were taken in preparation for an employment discrimination lawsuit brought by former campus police Officer Bryan Jacobson.