A city police sergeant at the center of an eight-month-old investigation will answer to a pair of criminal charges in court today.

State police began investigating David Schauwecker in August after images of possible child pornography were found on a laptop computer he had used.

The charges Schauwecker will answer to in court today emerged from that lengthy investigation but do not relate to child pornography. Instead, Schauwecker, 49, will be arraigned at 1 p.m. today in Rutland District Court on a charge of false report to enforcement authorities and neglect of duty by a public officer.

Asked about the outcome of the child pornography investigation, Attorney General William Sorrell said Tuesday that an affidavit filed with the court would contain information about that investigation but he declined to say whether Schauwecker had been exonerated of possessing child pornography.

"These charges are all we're contemplating at this time," Sorrell said. "The ethical rules are pretty clear that as a prosecutor it would be inappropriate to make public statements beyond the court filings."

State police have said in the past that charges related to child pornography were unlikely in the case.

In a Feb. 12 statement, state police said a forensic exam could not prove that the 150 images of apparent child pornography found under Schauwecker's user profile on a department laptop were "knowingly and intentionally downloaded."

They also said an expert examined a suspect image from materials seized at the police station but could not say if the person depicted was under the age of 16.

Schauwecker has been on paid administrative leave since Feb. 5 — days after the Rutland Herald prevailed in unsealing a search warrant used to seize his office computer and a number of other items, including recordings containing pornographic content, from the city Police Department.

The warrant, executed in September, was obtained after state police investigators analyzed the laptop and Schauwecker's desktop computer where they found files created for a media player device. The file names appeared to refer to children's ages through characters such as Y11 YRLD and Y11 next to sexually explicit labels.

While the reasons for the two charges have yet to be revealed, the state police detective who wrote the application for the warrant indicated that Schauwecker lied to investigators about visiting pornographic sites on the Internet.

With criminal charges forthcoming, Rutland Police Commission Chairman Robert Ebbinghausen said Tuesday the department's administrators would be able to finish an internal investigation of Schauwecker's conduct.

"The internal investigation has already begun and it's been hinging on what the Attorney General's Office found," Ebbinghausen said.

He declined to say if the department or the commission were talking about firing the sergeant.

The city's mayor and Board of Aldermen also had little to say Tuesday about Schauwecker's continued employment with the city.

Members of the board on hand Tuesday evening for a special meeting shook their heads when asked to answer questions about Schauwecker's future.

Mayor Christopher Louras also declined comment, pointing to a possible conflict of interest.

"I can't comment as I may preside over the Board of Civil Authority on this matter," he said.

The BCA acts as both judge and jury in appeals of employee firings.

brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com