Tarrant County IT Manager Fired Amid Porn Allegations

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A Tarrant County I.T. manager in charge of a project worth millions of dollars has been fired.

According to documents released to CBS 11 News, Mark O'Neal was terminated for having pornographic images on his county owned laptop.

O'Neal was in charge of a court records project which cost the county millions of dollars and has taken several years to develop.

Commissioners learned last month that the software is still not online.

O'Neal is appealing and says in court documents, "I am not guilty of the allegations as stated, therefore there should be no discipline imposed."

He goes on to say "I respectfully ask the Tarrant County Civil Service Commission to rescind the disciplinary action. I also request all back pay, allowances, and emoluments of the office."

Tarrant County auditors filed a report on Oct. 31 questioning technology contracts awarded to a Southlake company that has failed to upload the software it was paid to create online.

The county has paid XPedient Technologies about $4 million to create a system so that the courthouse, jail and other parts of the justice system can share records and communicate better with each other.

O'Neal was first put on paid administrative leave while the district attorney's office investigates some questionable travel reports he filed related to the project.

An auditor's report said that O'Neal made multiple trips out of town and billed the county when he stayed at his wife's timeshare condominium.
CBS 11 News tried to reach O'Neal and his attorney, but our requests for comment have not been returned.