CHARLESTON -- A College of Charleston psychology professor falsely accused of downloading child pornography onto his computer last year has created a class to teach students about hunting down criminals.

Robin Bowers will teach the college's first forensic psychology course this May that melds psychology and criminal justice in a field with an array of applications.

His interest in helping students figure out the clinical and psychological aspects of the law grew out of suddenly finding himself on the other side of the law last year.

One day in January 2003, Bowers returned to his office to find the central processing unit of his computer missing. At first he thought it was a theft. Then he learned that a team of college and city police working with the FBI had seized it from his office.

They were responding to an allegation that a technician had seen child pornography on his computer even though the computer was new and had never been serviced, Bowers said.

He speculates that e-mails he sent out against the war in Iraq might have triggered a complaint. When he saw e-mails circulating in support of the military action, Bowers said, he sent messages in protest that showed children who had been maimed by war. The college is helping Bowers find out who filed the initial report.

"Everyone wound up dropping what they were doing to try to assist law enforcement on what turned out to be a very intrusive wild goose chase," said Andy Abrams, general counsel and senior vice president for strategic planning and administration for the college.

Bowers said he almost felt like leaving the college, but he was encouraged to stay and take a sabbatical last fall to create the forensic psychology course. As he teaches his students the cyber information technology portion of the course, Bowers plans to talk about how his computer was searched.

He gets some satisfaction knowing that whoever made the allegation will see that, rather than destroying him, it had the positive effect of creating a course that will stir students' interests in science and critical thinking.

Creating the course "let me let some of this be all right," Bowers said. "It helps me let it go."

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