On Tuesday morning, the Los Angeles Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Unit served a search warrant at the home of actor Mark Salling, who is best known for playing Noah “Puck” Puckerman for six seasons on Fox’s musical show Glee, as first reported in Crime Watch Daily. Moments later, Salling was arrested.
“He was taken into custody this morning for possession of child porn,” LAPD Officer Aaron Jefferson confirmed to People magazine. According to a TMZ source, police were tipped off by Salling’s ex-girlfriend and found “hundreds” of illegal images on his computer.
Salling, 33, was a regular on Glee through Season Five, but was moved to “recurring” for the the sixth and final season, which wrapped in March of this year.
Just days after the Glee series finale, it was reported that Salling had settled a lawsuit with former girlfriend Roxanne Gorzela after she accused him of sexual battery two years earlier. The judge in the case ordered Salling to pay Gorzela $2.7 million for medical and other damages.
In her 2013 complaint, Gorzela claimed that in 2011 Salling had forced her to have unprotected sex against her will and she was “overwhelmed with anxiety” in the days following out of fear that she had contracted an STD. When she confronted him at his home and demanded to see a clean bill of health, she said he threw her to the ground, causing bruising on her knees and legs.
“You hear about fraudulent lawsuits all the time,” Salling told E! News on the SAG Awards red carpet in 2013. “Until it happens to you, you really don’t grasp what it does, not to just you, but to your family, and you want the legal process to happen as fast as possible, but just… It takes time. I just want the chance to defend myself—and I will, vigorously.
“You kind of have to learn as you go,” he added. “You just have to stay positive, and I personally have a relationship with Jesus Christ and I count on that myself. And my parents are awesome, too.”
Here is Salling singing Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” in Season Two of Glee.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Salling’s press rep for comment.