Top administrator of Cooper Green Mercy Hospital charged with child pornography
Birmingham AL May 21 2017 The arrest of a top administrator at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital was part of a statewide operation targeting possession, production and dissemination of child pornography, authorities said Friday.
Marc Elliot Sussman, a 61-year-old Cooper Green Mercy Hospital administrator, was one of five suspects arrested in the three-day Alabama Law Enforcement Agency effort – Operation Standing Guard.
Sussman was arrested at his Mountain Brook home Thursday, and booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 9:17 a.m. According to jail records, Sussman is charged with six counts of possession of obscene material involving a victim under the age of 17. He was released from jail just before 11 p.m. Thursday after posting $90,000 bond.
Sussman is the Health Services Project Manager at Cooper Green Mercy Health Services, where he has worked since 2003, according to his LinkedIn biography. Prior to that, he worked at another Birmingham area hospital, also in administration. Hospital officials have not returned a call seeking comment on the arrest.
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency investigators took Marc Elliot Sussman, a Cooper Green Mercy Hospital administrator, into custody at his Mountain Brook home.
Another Jefferson County man – 37-Corey Beantee Melton – was also arrested in the operation. Agents swarmed Melton’s Hueytown home on Tuesday. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail later that day on five charges of possession of obscene material involving a victim under the age of 17, disseminating or displaying obscene material involving a victim under the age of 17, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Melton was convicted on child pornography charges in Jefferson County in 2009 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He is on the state’s sex offender registry. He was released from jail on Thursday after posting $95,000 bond on his newest charges.
Three other suspects were arrested in St. Clair County: Thomas Duke, 31, of Odenville; Brian Rooks, 34, of Odenville, and Delbert Sargeant, 56, of Springville. All three are charged with multiple counts of possession of child pornography with bonds set between $400,000 and $500,000. They are in the St. Clair County Jail.
Six search warrants were served during the operation. Authorities said they identified four child victims.
Operation Standing Guard was carried out in Jefferson, Shelby and St. Clair counties by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force made up of county, state and federal agencies including: Special Victims Unit and Major Crimes Unit/Region G of ALEA’s State Bureau of Investigation, ALEA’s Tactical Team, Joint Electronic Crimes Task Forces hosted by the University of Alabama Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Secret Service, Etowah County Sheriff’s Office, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and Walker County Sheriff’s Office. Assistance was also provided by St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office, Homewood Police Department, Mountain Brook Police Department, Adamsville Police Department and Hueytown Police Department.
