Former Tamaqua resident David Fortin waived the 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 in Luzerne County Central Court earlier.

Fortin has an address of Forty Fort.

A disposition hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. March 3 in front of Judge Joseph Sklarosky Jr. at the county courthouse.

Bail was set at $300,000 straight cash. Fortin remains in the Luzerne County Prison. Bail had previously been denied because he is “a danger to society,” court documents show.

His attorney Richard J. Fuschino Jr. was not immediately available for comment.

He had said, “there is more to this than meets the eye” about the charges against Fortin.

A representative with District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce was not available for comment.

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 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 location.

A search warrant was served Nov. 23 at his home.

Fortin told authorities he wanted to clear the Dropbox 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 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 admits he feels terrible for being involved. 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.