Police arrest College of Southern Idaho student body president on 15 counts of child porn
TWIN FALLS
The College of Southern Idaho student body president was arrested Tuesday and faces 15 felony counts of distributing child sexual material, court records showed.
According to a police affidavit, the 21-year-old uploaded a video file containing child sexual abuse material to Snapchat on Jan. 27.
The video depicted a nude prepubescent male child of approximately 10 to 12 years of age engaged in oral sex with a male adult, the affidavit said, and after reviewing the uploaded files, Snapchat submitted an alert to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which then referred the case to the Idaho Office of the Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit.
On Tuesday, the Twin Falls Police Department, Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office and Rupert Police Department arrested the man at his place of residence, the affidavit reported, and he was transported to the Twin Falls Police Department for interrogation.
Officials found two phones in the man’s apartment that they believe he used to receive and distribute the images, according to court records.
Officials found conversations between the man and other Snapchat users that contained key words such as “teen,” “young pics” and “younger,” terms that are typically used in child sexual abuse cases, officials said. Additionally, he was found communicating with a minor, a junior in high school, the affidavit said.
The man distributed video files with other users through Mega.nz hyperlinks, police say. Further investigation found that the hyperlinks included 10,500 media files, many of which included child sexual abuse materials.
One Mega account linked to him included 14 files depicting the images, which showed minors between the ages of 10 to 15 performing sex acts with mature males and other minors, court records showed.
The College of Southern Idaho removed his biography and photo from the Student Government and Presidential Scholars pages on the college’s official website.
“The College of Southern Idaho does not comment on law enforcement investigations connected with our students,” a CSI representative told the Times-News. “Please direct all inquiries to the appropriate law enforcement agency.”