COLUMBUS – A judge set a $50,000 bond Friday for a television meteorologist facing child pornography charges.
UPDATE 9/7/19 6:16 a.m.: This story has been edited from an earlier version to include reports on Davis’s arraignment.
The judge set a cash bond of $25,000 and a $25,000 appearance bond for Mike Davis, chief meteorologist at WBNS 10-TV, according to a report on the station’s website.
Other conditions of the bond include no unsupervised contact with minors, forfeiture of his passport and no internet access including on a smartphone.
Davis, 60, was arrested Thursday at his home and charged with pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, a second-degree felony, but Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin says additional charges are possible pending further investigation.
Baldwin on Thursday said Davis possessed a “significant” number of images depicting children.
Meanwhile, Davis was fired from his job at the Columbus CBS affiliate where he had worked for over 30 years.
Statement from #10TV regarding the child pornography charge against Mike Davis:
It has been a difficult few days and our team has been shocked by this news. We have decided to end our relationship with Mike Davis due to a violation of certain terms of his employment with WBNS.
— 10TV (@10TV) September 6, 2019
Defense attorney Terry Sherman asked the judge to release Davis on a personal bond saying he has strong ties to the community and no criminal record.
The case hasn’t been presented to a grand jury.
The arrest and the execution of search warrants at multiple locations, beginning at 7:00 a.m. Thursday, were the culmination of a two-week investigation, which Baldwin says began after the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received tips “regarding internet activity that involved images of child pornography that was both sent and received.”
Davis is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.