NEW YORK (AP) -- Two computer technicians, fired from New York Law School after reporting that they found child pornography on a professor's computer, filed a $15 million whistle-blower lawsuit Thursday. Dorothea Perry, 35, of Brooklyn, and Robert Gross, 26, of Staten Island, say in court papers that they were consistently praised for their work until they reported child porn on Professor Edward Samuels' computer at the law school on June 3.

Samuels, reported to authorities by Perry, was arrested Aug. 14 on two felony counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child, based on photos of naked girls aged 3 to 13 found in his computer, court papers say.

On Oct. 16, Samuels was arraigned in Manhattan's state Supreme Court on the charges, which are punishable by up to four years in prison upon conviction. He was ordered to return to court Jan. 29.

Samuels didn't return a telephone message left at his home Thursday night.

Perry and Gross say in court papers that the law school fired them Oct. 22 because, in acting on their moral obligations, they "set into motion an embarrassing and very public condemnation of perhaps the most well-known professor at NYLS."

"This is a classic whistle-blower case," said Louis Pechman, lawyer for the techs.

Perry and Gross were contract workers sent to NYLS by Collegis Inc., a firm in Maitland, Fla., that provides technological and management services to colleges and universities.

Perry, the single mother of an 8-year-old, earned about $55,000 a year, according to court papers, and Gross made about $37,000 annually.

They said they received ratings of "excellent" in job performance reviews before the Samuels case arose.