A Tennessee Tech athletic trainer has been arrested on child pornography charges.

Upton Dabney, Jr., 43, of Briarwood St., Cookeville, was recently indicted by the Putnam Grand Jury in a case investigated by Cookeville Police Department Sgt. Yvette Demming.

The indictment charges Dabney with sexual exploitation of a minor and aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor in 2009.

Allegedly, between June 8, 2009, and July 14, 2008, Dabney “did knowingly possess over 100 images or material that includes a minor engaged in sexual activity,” the indictment says.

He is also accused of intending to “distribute or exchange” material which included a minor engaged in sexual activity, the indictment says.

Dabney joined the TTU Athletic Department as a trainer in 2008 after working for five years at Oregon Tech, where he handled “all of the sports medicine needs for the school’s 11-sport athletic program,” a TTU publication says.

He is a graduate of East High School in Morristown, Tennessee and earned a degree from the Tennessee Institute of Electronics, then worked several years in “the computer field,” the TTU publication says.

He has also worked in other athletic training programs and earned a bachelor’s degree in athletic training in 2001 and later a Master’s Degree in physical education.

The investigation that led to his arrest was conducted by the multi-agency Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit in which detectives monitor internet sites looking for evidence of crimes against children.

Dabney was arrested Friday afternoon, October 21, by Putnam Sheriff’s Deputy Tory Womack and booked into Putnam jail, where bond was set at $10,000. He posted bond and was released the same day.

He is to be arraigned in Criminal Court on November 15.

TTU Director of Athletics told the Herald-Citizen Monday morning, October 24, that Dabney had resigned from his job at TTU.

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The body of a 70-year-old Putnam County man was recovered from Center Hill Lake last Wednesday, October 26, officials said.

But as of the following morning, Thursday, October 27, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency was declining to release the name of the drowning victim.

The man had been out on the lake in his boat fishing and family members became worried when he did not return at the end of the day, officials said.

Searchers and rescuers began an investigation, and the man’s body was found in an area where the water was about seven feet deep, according to TWRA.

A marina worker in the Cookeville Boat Dock area had spotted an empty boat on the water near the dock in that area.

“He apparently had an accident with his boat,” said TWRA District 31 boating officer Nick Luper.

Luper said the immediate family of the victim had been notified of his death, but said the TWRA “always waits for a time after that notification before releasing the name of the victim.”

In an unrelated case, the body of a Warren County man who drowned in Center Hill Lake at Rock Island State Park was also recovered October 26.

He was identified as Jerry Boyd, 49, of the McMinnville area. He and a friend had gone boating on Monday and their boat capsized, Luper said. The other man was able to swim to shore, but Boyd drowned.

His body was recovered in water about eight feet deep around 2 p.m. last Wednesday.