Teacher to file suit against Olympia for accusing him of child porn

OLYMPIA -- A music teacher who says he was wrongfully accused of possessing child pornography claims he has evidence to prove his innocence.

Troy Fisher says he is now going to sue the city and police department that arrested him last year.

Fisher joined dozens of friends and former students at Olympia's Percival Landing Thursday night.

"I want to tell the truth, and I want to tell it as broadly and loudly as the untruths about me were told," he said.

Last year, Fisher was charged with possession of child pornography. In February, those charges were dropped because it was determined police did not have the legal right to search his computer.

But Fisher still wanted to prove his innocence, so he sought out an independent computer forensics expert. The report released by Randall Karstetter on Thursday says Fisher did not download the images found on his computer. He says they were in a non-accessible space on his hard drive.

“There's lots of malware, there's lots of viruses, things come on our computer that we're unaware of,” Fisher said.

Karstetter says around 20 percent of the pornography cases he investigates end up with charges being dropped or people being acquitted. He thinks it's because many officers aren't trained properly when it comes to computer searches.

“We need to demand that police are provided with all the resources and training they can get in order to prevent situations like Troy’s from happening again,” he said.

Kathryn Wyatt, whose son was one of Fisher's students, agrees.

“I’m hugely disappointed that our law enforcement allowed something like that to happen,” she said, adding that she never doubted his innocence.

"I absolutely knew all along and so did hundreds of others. We have been waiting until this day when there was math and science to say it along with us."

Fisher says he is going to file suit against the city of Olympia and its police department.

"They violated my civil liberties that are provided to me by the Constitution of the United States of America, and I feel a certain responsibility since this happened to make sure there's some accountability."

Q13 Fox News reached out to the city of Olympia about the forensics report and the possibility of a lawsuit, but did not hear back.