Child porn file-sharing probe snagged Metro officer
A Las Vegas police officer who turned himself in when he was sought on child porn-related charges was caught through a file-sharing network, according to an arrest report.
Patrick Taylor, 50, faces one count of possession of child pornography and two counts of distribution of child pornography, police said.
Police came across Taylor’s IP address while they were conducting an online investigation of sharing child pornography files on the BitTorrent network Jan. 3, the arrest report said. Several files linked to suspected child pornography on his IP address were available to share, the report said.
Officers searched Taylor’s home March 19 where investigators found four computers and two hard drives in Taylor’s home office that showed he had been viewing child pornography since 2004 and that he had used file hosting and sharing programs to “download, upload and/or search for” child pornography, Taylor’s arrest re- port said.
While officers searched Taylor’s home, he admitted to police that he had used search terms indicative of child porn and had viewed several videos of child porn that were downloaded from a BitTorrent network client called Vuze.
He told police he has never intentionally downloaded child pornography and that he knows it is wrong and finds it offensive, his arrest report said. He would use search words like a person’s name, titles and later, the word “young” when he was downloading adult porn, he told police in the report.
In the same interview he told detectives the last time he had watched child pornography was three weeks ago when he “came across a file containing several child pornography videos.”
He watched several minutes of a few of the videos in the file before deleting them, he told police in the arrest report.
Detectives later found search paths in Taylor’s web browsers and on his hard drives that showed he had used several “common child pornography keywords used to locate child pornography,” according to the report.
Taylor, who started working for Metro in 1989, resigned May 13, police said.
A warrant was issued for his arrest on May 22.
He turned himself in five days later at the Regional Justice Center and appeared at his initial court appearance the same day.
No bail was set and Taylor was released on the condition that he has no contact with anyone under 18 and no access to the Internet or social media, according to court records.
Taylor worked in the Analytical Section under the Metropolitan Police Department’s Law Enforcement Investigations and Administrations Group, police said.
His total salary with benefits in 2014 was $139,361.87. Contact reporter Cassandra Taloma at ctaloma@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @CassandraTaloma.
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL