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Police: Wife tried to frame husband for porn

INDIANA COUNTY, Pa. — An Indiana County woman who blamed her estranged husband for placing images of child pornography on a home computer has been charged with creating those files and then lying to authorities about them, state police said.

Meri Jane Woods, 42, of Cherryhill Township started the investigation by the Southwest Computer Crime Task Force by going to the Indiana barracks on Aug. 14.

She claimed her estranged husband had committed numerous criminal acts and had placed images of child pornography on the family computer, police said.

Cpl. John Roche said that a thorough examination of the computer revealed that all of the images of child pornography were written to the computer's hard drive on Aug. 11, according to a criminal complaint.

Woods' husband told police he left the home on July 23 and never returned, the complaint said.

He was ordered out of the house under a protection-from-abuse order obtained by Meri Woods, police said.

She was charged with one felony count of sexual abuse of children for allegedly possessing a computer containing images of child pornography and 40 misdemeanor counts of unsworn falsification to authorities for allegedly accusing her husband of involuntary sexual deviate intercourse and sexual abuse of children.

Woods was arraigned on Thursday by Blairsville District Judge Jennifer Rega and released on $25,000 unsecured bond.

This article was written by Channel 11's news exchange partners at TribLIVE.