A former Five Rivers MetroParks employee, accused several years ago of downloading child pornography to a computer owned by the parks system, is now facing criminal charges.

An arrest warrant was issued this week for 70-year-old Byron Monroe Layman. On Monday, a Montgomery County grand jury indicted him on eight counts of pandering obscene material involving a minor and seven counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor, both fourth-degree felonies, according to county court records.

The alleged crimes occurred between Feb. 4 and Nov. 12, 2010, according to court records. During that time Layman was a part-time education assistant with the park system.

“It was caught by our own Internet security, our own IT folks,” said Mark Hess, chief of the Five Rivers MetroParks Ranger Division.

He said Layman was placed on unpaid leave on March 16, 2010. He resigned before he could be confronted about allegations that he was viewing inappropriate Web sites while at work and exchanging files containing child pornography.

The illegal behavior allegedly occurred on two dates in 2010 while Layman had access to a computer at Germantown MetroPark.

Hess said Layman’s job duties included leading park tours that would have included children, but teachers or chaperones always accompany those tours.

“We had no allegations that there was any inappropriate behavior directly with children,” Hess said.

Layman worked for the parks system since 2007 and Hess said there were no prior disciplinary complaints against him.

During the investigation, a search warrant was obtained for Layman’s personal computer, where additional images of child pornography were found, Hess said. The case took several years to get to a grand jury because the forensic analysis of the computers took some time, he said.

Layman lives in Colorado and local law enforcement officials are trying to get the warrant for his arrest to extend to that state, Hess said. The warrant only applies to states that neighbor Ohio.

The indictment orders him to appear in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court on April 2.