Sixteen counts of possession of child pornography against an 86-year-old Villager have been dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Edwin Arthur Henningson was arrested in January after a search warrant was executed at his home at 3456 Greenacres Terrace in the Village of Charlotte. The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel was found to have numerous graphic sexual images on his Dell laptop computer, kept in a spare bedroom of his home.
Henningson told law enforcement officers that he “enjoyed” looking at women/girls and he thought that to be convicted of child pornography “the child had to be under the age of 12,” according to the arrest report.
Some of those images included children under the age of 5, clearly engaged in illicit sexual activity with an adult male.
The grandfather of 10 admitted the computer and numerous external storage devices containing graphic images belonged to him. He said he had spent the past couple of years trying to “wean” himself off looking at the images.
However, the prosecutor’s office this past Wednesday announced it was dropping all charges against Henningson.
“The evidence is legally insufficient to prove the defendant unlawfully and knowingly possessed, controlled or intentionally view child pornography,” State Attorney Brad King wrote in an announcement of no information.
Henningson is the author of the book, “Nine Lives in the Air: The Adventures and Misadventures of an Air Force Pilot.” According to his author’s biography, he was born in Watervliet, N.Y. and after high school was an aviation cadet and completed pilot training at Webb Air Force Base in Big Spring, Texas. He met his wife of more than 60 years in Big Spring. He spent 26 years in the military.
