The Forty Fort man charged with 500 counts of child pornography and other offenses had his case continued in Luzerne County Central Court on Tuesday.

Richard J. Fuschino Jr., attorney for David Fortin, said the case was continued for “strategic reasons.”

Fortin is due in court at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 14. He was charged Nov. 23 with 500 counts of child pornography, 100 counts of disseminating photos/film of child sex acts, and two counts of criminal use of a communications facility, court documents show.

Fuschino said the fact the affidavit of probable cause says what it is does “is not evidence of guilt.” He said Fortin is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Prosecutors have a case to make, he said.

“There is more to this than meets the eye,” declining to elaborate, Fuschino said.

Fortin is in the Luzerne County Prison and was denied bail because he is “a danger to society,” court documents state.

Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce is seeking the public’s help in the case. Investigators are currently investigating whether any of the illicit photographs and videos contained victims from Luzerne County or were manufactured in Luzerne County. Anyone with information is asked to contact Luzerne County Detectives at 570-825-1674 or the West Hazleton Police Department at 570-455-3733, ext. 106.

The investigation regarding the crimes started after a detective from the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office, Detective Division, received a cybertip from the Pennsylvania Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Commander, according to an affidavit. The tip was from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The application Dropbox Inc. generated the information.

Fortin was identified as having uploaded 190 files showing suspected child abuse material. A search warrant on the account had “thousands of video files containing child sexual abuse material,” according to the affidavit.

A subpoena issued for a Gmail account gave email addresses for Fortin and a phone number, which matches Fortin’s number for his Fortin Academy of Music website and social media sites. The Academy of Music has an address of 99 W. Rowe St., Tamaqua. There is also a Wilkes-Barre site.

Luzerne County Detectives, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Pennsylvania State Police Northeast Computer Crime Unit, Forty Fort Borough and Swoyersville Borough Police Department served a search warrant Nov. 23 at Fortin’s home for “any all electronic storage devices.”

When told they were looking for his Dropbox account and child abuse material he said, “I can explain that,” the affidavit says.

Fortin told authorities he wanted to clear the account to get more storage space. After opening a link depicting child sexual abuse material, he was locked from the account, documents state. He admitted to creating the Dropbox account and downloading and disseminating images/videos depicting child abuse, documents say. A search of his iPhone found more than 400 image and video files of child sexual abuse material.

Fortin admitted he feels terrible for being involved with the child sexual abuse material. He told authorities he wanted to stop looking at the videos because he knew it was illegal, the videos hurt children and he wanted to help them, documents show. He denied touching a child in a sexual manner.