A Boardman man appeared in court Tuesday to answer felony charges for allegedly using the state’s crime computer to look up information about an escort when he was working as a dispatcher for Youngstown State University’s campus police department.

Dean Demain is now free after being booked into the county jail on charges of Unauthorized Use of the Law Enforcement Automated Database System, and Unauthorized Use of Computer, Cable or Telecommunications Property.

The court set a pre-trial hearing for May 31 and a trial for July 10.

According to Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Mike Yacavone, the investigation began into Demain in 2018 when he was employed as a campus police dispatcher and searched the crime computer’s database to find out more about a prostitute.

Yacavone tells 21 News that using the computer for such information is only legal for law enforcement officials conducting an investigation.

Demain was fired from his dispatcher’s job shortly after the discovery was made in 2018.

Yacavone says it took five years to bring the indictment because revealing Demain’s alleged activity could have compromised a human trafficking investigation going on in another jurisdiction.  The details of that separate investigation are expected soon, according to Yacavone.