PR Exec Faces Multiple Child Porn Charges

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SHELBY TOWNSHIP, MI – A well-known public relations executive with deep ties in Metro Detroit has been arrested on child pornography charges.

Philip William Frame, 61, of Shelby Township was arrested Saturday and arraigned Monday on five counts of possession of child sexually abusive material, a four-year felony; one count of using a computer to commit a crime, a seven-year felony; and a misdemeanor charge for possessing marijuana, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

Frame — a former spokesman for Macomb County government, the Cobo Center and the Detroit International Bridge Co., and a former public affairs officer for the National Transportation Safety Board — posted $10,000 bond after his arrest Saturday and was released from jail.

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The bond was continued at Monday’s arraignment in 41A District Court in Shelby Township. His next court date is Jan. 19.

The sheriff’s office’s Macomb Area Computer Enforcement team received a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children that someone with an IP address registered to a Shelby Township residence had uploaded pornographic images of children on an Internet website.

Authorities from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security searched Frame’s residence in September as part of a child pornography investigation, and evidence was also seized at that time, the sheriff’s office said.

The status of that investigation is unknown.

“If someone comes to your house and does a search warrant, and there’s a possibility of criminal charges, you would think that behavior would stop,” Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham told The Detroit News. “Obviously, he didn’t think anything was going to happen to him, because he continued doing it.”

The Detroit Free Press said Frame was laid off as a Macomb County spokesman in 2009, then worked as a spokesman for businessman Manuel (Matty) Moroun and the bridge company before leaving to concentrate on his own public relations firm, which listed the Cobo Center among its clients.

His LinkedIn profile says he is a partner and senior account director with Constand Communications Group, whose accounts include the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.