Newly published photos appear to show suspended “Wheel of Fortune” announcer Jim Thornton viewing an alleged pedophilia-related chatroom during a flight.
Thornton, 61, is pictured looking at a laptop aboard an American Airlines plane in images published Thursday by TMZ. A close-up of the screen shows disturbing chat messages, including one that reads, “A nice hangout for kids. Saw a couple of cute boys and a hot little girl.”
Another visible message says, “All-you-can-eat Boyffet.”
Based on the timestamps shown, Thornton — seen wearing a “Wheel of Fortune” jacket in the photos — appears to have remained in the chatroom for nearly an hour.
The passenger who alerted a flight attendant told TMZ she allegedly noticed images and messages that led her to believe Thornton was in a chatroom for pedophiles, after which she shared the photos with the flight crew.
Law enforcement officers were notified about the incident and met Thornton at the gate upon his arrival. Officers questioned the TV personality, who was then released.
Thornton has not been arrested or charged in connection with the incident, which occurred on May 14.
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Page Six has reached out to Thornton’s attorney for comment on the photos.
Thornton’s attorney, Allison Hart, claimed in a letter obtained by Page Six Thursday — prior to TMZ publishing the photos — that he accidentally clicked into the chatroom by mistake when he was trying to visit a chatroom offering support to individuals suffering from suicidal ideation, after losing a close family member to suicide two years ago.
“One of the sites my client has visited is 988lifeline.org, and its chat forum chat.988lifeline.org. … Through an acquaintance in the suicide prevention space, my client was misdirected to a forum with a similar URL, the forum lifeline.chat, which my client understood to be a forum offering suicide prevention support similar to 988lifeline.org and chat.988lifeline.org,” Hart claimed.
Hart alleged that Thornton did not know the website “lifeline.chat” claims to offer mental health support to individuals with pedophilic thoughts.
“When my client understood what the website was about, he left the page and has not visited since,” Hart also claimed, adding, “The website lifeline.chat itself is not unlawful, there is no unlawful child pornography or other pedophilic content, and my client has never viewed, downloaded or consumed any child pornography, whether on that commercial flight in May or at any other time.”
Hart further stressed, “It is for that reason that my client was never arrested or charged with a crime. Law enforcement immediately confirmed that no crime had occurred and immediately told my client he was free to go. In short, my client did nothing wrong.”
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Sony told Page Six, “We have recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton. He has been suspended from ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation.”
Thornton will reportedly be edited out of the upcoming 44th season of “Wheel of Fortune” as producers scramble to replace him.