A man scheduled to be sentenced to federal prison today for child pornography died in a one-car crash in Pend Oreille County this morning.

Bruce R. Thompson was killed when his 2003 GMC pickup went off state Route 211 about 10 miles west of Newport and struck a boulder, according to Washington State Patrol.

Thompson, 61, was pronounced dead at the scene. Drugs and alcohol are not believed to be a factor.

The crash was reported about 8:30 a.m. Thompson was due in U.S. District Court in Spokane at 9 a.m. to be sentenced for receipt of child pornography. He'd been out of jail awaiting sentencing since a grand jury indicted him in April 2011. Federal agents searched his apartment in the 500 block of West 7th Avenue in April 2010.

Thompson pleaded guilty in February to downloading child pornography on the Internet from February 2006 to December 2009.

A plea agreement called for him to serve five years in federal prison.

A state social services employee arrested on child pornography charges April 17 has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Darrell J. Rogers, 51, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two counts of distribution of child pornography. The charges carry five years to 20 years in prison and registration as a sex offender if convicted. 

Rogers, a married father with no criminal history, was allowed to leave jail a few days after his arrest after undergoing a mental health assessment.

A prosecutor said the material federal agents downloaded from Rogers, who licenses foster homes for children, is some of the worst he's encountered in his 36 years of practicing law.

A state social services employee accused of distributing child pornography must undergo a mental health evaluation before he can leave jail, a judge ruled today.

A federal prosecutor said the material distributed by Darrell J. Rogers, who licenses foster homes for children, is some of the worst he's encountered in his 36 years of practicing law.

“This is not normal child pornography,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks said at Rogers' bail hearing in U.S. District Court. “This is child pornography that is very disturbing.”

The material includes a video of a 3-month-old girl being raped by an adult male, Hicks said.

“This is not like trading baseball cards,” Hicks said. “What kind of person would have an interest in this?…Most people are disgusted by it, and most people would ask 'what's wrong with this person?'”

Rogers, 51, is a married father of two with no criminal history. He's lived in Spokane his entire life and has worked for the state Department of Health and Human Services since 1995. Family, friends and coworkers attended his hearing; some left afterward in tears.

Distributing child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison for each image.

U.S Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno will review Rogers' mental health evaluation. Rogers and his wife must pay $25,000 bond to secure his release from jail. If he is released, Rogers will be confined to his home and must wear an electric monitor. Firearms that FBI agents found in his home during a search on Tuesday must be removed.

Imbrogno called the conditions “perhaps about as stringent as they get for this type of charge,” she said.

Hicks cited Rogers’ employment as a person in a position of trust with children as further reason for a mental health evaluation.

“He's leading a double life, in effect,” Hicks said.

A DSHS spokesman said Rogers will be reassigned to a position in which he does not have contact with children if he's released from jail pending the resolution of his case. Imbrogno said she'll decide if Rogers can be employed after reading his evaluation.

Rogers has been in the Spokane County Jail since Tuesday, when FBI agents arrested him at his home in the 7100 block of North Westgate Place in the Indian Trail area in north Spokane and seized a computer containing sexually explicit images of children.

The FBI began investigating him in February after an agent in Maryland downloaded child pornography from an Internet Protocol address linked to Rogers' home.

The material features the infant and children up to six years old, Hicks said.

Rogers told the FBI the material was on a computer in the guest bedroom when questioned, Hicks said.

Rogers also told investigators he'd never hurt a child and would contact authorities if he knew of someone who was. He said he wasn't sexually attracted to children but was “trying to figure out” child pornography.

Hicks said Rogers' response was typical “even from people who have been diagnosed as pedophiles.”

“I'm not saying Rogers is; I'm saying that's a typical response,” Hicks said.

He called the assertion that viewing and distributing child pornography doesn't harm children “bunk.”

“Fifty-one-year-olds creating generations of pedophiles. If we look at the facts, that’s what happens in a lot of circumstances,” Hicks said.

Public defender Matthew Campbell said a mental health evaluation isn't necessary and said Rogers is not a danger to the community. “He has no criminal history,” Campbell said.

Campbell said prosecutors have not opposed pre-trial release in other child pornography cases, but Hicks said the cases didn't involve three month olds being raped by adult males.

A state social services employee who licenses foster care homes was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of child pornography possession.

Darrell J. Rogers, 51, is in the Spokane County Jail without bail after appearing in U.S. District Court Tuesday afternoon. FBI agents arrested him at his home in the 7100 block of North Westgate Place in the Indian Trail area in north Spokane, where he lives with his wife, Kim Rogers, 49.

Kim Rogers also is a social worker with the state Department of Social and Health Services who specializes in finding homes for children who are wards of the state. Her husband licenses those homes, a neighbor said.

Darrell Rogers told FBI agents his wife had nothing to do with the child pornography they were investigating, according to court documents. The FBI began investigating Rogers in February after an agent in Maryland downloaded child pornography from an Internet user in Spokane.

The material includes children as young as approximately three months old being sexually assaulted by men and women.

Darrell Rogers was a social worker for 10 years beginning in 1995, said Thomas Shapley, DSHS spokesman. He began licensing foster homes in 2005, Shapley said.

Rogers is barred from entering his workplace, and his computer access has been locked. Should he be released from jail pending the resolution of the case, “we've already prepared an alternative work assignment for him where he would not have any contact with children,” Shapley said.

FBI agents say Rogers admitted Tuesday to using Internet file sharing programs and said no one else in the home, including his wife and two sons, would have used the screen names associated with the explicit material.

“Agents asked if he knew of any really bad people who he traded with that specifically harmed children,” according to court documents. “Rogers responded that he did not know of anyone who was abusing children, and had he known he would have reported it.”

Rogers told federal agents he had had no sexual interest in the material but was “trying to figure it out,” documents say.

“When asked about how long he had an interest in child pornography, Rogers stated that he did not know, and that he would never touch a child, and would never molest children,” agents wrote.

Rogers is due back in court Friday for a hearing to determine if he can be allowed out of jail on bail pending trial.

A Spokane Valley man was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.

Jonathan Stocker, 30, was indicted September after a May 31 federal search of his home found 24 videos and images of children engaged in sex acts, according to court records.

Stocker is not in jail and is being allowed to self report to federal prison. A sentencing memorandum described him as a man who “pays his taxes and his bills and lives modestly.”

“He has no history of abuse of children and in fact, his friends and family who have children, report that he acts appropriately,” according to the memo prepared by his public defender. “There is no indication that Mr. Stocker presents a danger to anyone.”

Stocker was prosecuted under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington said in a news release.

  

A registered sex offender admitted today to possessing child pornography at his home in Hayden Lake, Idaho.

John Patrick McClaren, 46, faces up to 15 years in prison when he's sentenced June 19 in U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force began investigating McClaren in December 2009 after learning his Internet Protocol address was involved in the distribution of child pornography online.

Investigators seized a laptop computer and two hard drives from his home in the 3100 block of East Cambridge Drive on Jan. 27, 2010, that contained at least 160 sexually explicit images of minors. One child was identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as being a sex abuse victim from New Hampshire, officials said.

McClaren was convicted of possessing child pornography in Kootenai County in 2001, according to the Idaho Sex Offender Registry.

A Hayden Lake man is to spend more than six years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

Charley Brigham Leighton II, 41, also is to be on probation for 15 years, forfeit the computer and media used in the crime and register as a sex offender under a sentence imposed today in U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene.

Investigators seized computers from Leighton's home in August 2010 that contained pornography images of children. Leighton told investigators he'd downloaded more than 1,000 images in about a year, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty in October.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said the images depicted children from Missouri, Georgia, Connecticut, Michigan, Florida, Washington, France, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, England and the Netherlands, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

“Obtaining and possessing child pornography sexually exploits the children who appear in these heinous images again and again and again,” U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson said in a prepared statement.  “Mr. Leighton’s lengthy prison sentence sends a strong message that Idaho law enforcement, prosecutors and courts well understand that protecting our children against those who would exploit them is a critical criminal justice mission.”

Spokane police Officer Tyler Cordis escorts sex offender Christopher Ebner to a patrol car after his arrest on child pornography charges today. (SPDphoto)

A sex offender was arrested today for allegedly possessing child pornography. 

Christopher Michael Ebner, 37, lives in the 1400 block of North Hodges Road in Spokane Valley, which is near the Central Valley Kindergarten Center and the Central Valley bus garage.

Detectives discovered Ebner had a large amount of child pornography on his computer and that he was sharing the material online.

The videos depicted children who appeared to be as young as 8 years old, police said. Ebner was booked into jail about 9:15 a.m.

Ebner is a level 2 sex offender with convictions in 2005 for third-degree rape of a child and possession of child pornography.

He was arrested in 2004 for having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met through an Internet chat room. Police found child pornography on his computer then, according to a previous report.

He was sentenced to 26 months in prison and four years probation, according to court records.

Today's search warrant was one of four related to child pornography in recent weeks, police said.

A 23-year-old man scheduled for trial this month on child pornography charges is wanted by Crime stoppers after skipping a court hearing.

Richard B. Griffith is charged with possessing and distributing the illicit material via the Internet.

Spokane police searched his apartment in the 5200 block of South Ferrall Court on May 18 after tracking child pornography that had been posted on a file-sharing website.

The website's administrator alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of a photo uploaded by Griffith, according to court documents, and the center notified Spokane police.

Griffith told police he posted pictures on he website and “may have had some cloudy judgement,” according to court documents. He said he was “probably high at the time,” police said.

A no-bail warrant was issued for Griffith's arrest Jan. 20 after he missed a pre-trial conference on Jan. 13.

Griffith, 5-foot-7 and 190 pounds , last gave a home address in the 1000 block of Slide Creek Road in Colville, according to Crime Stoppers.

Anyone with information on his current location is asked to cal at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or submit tips online.

A sex offender assaulted in his cell by a self-proclaimed skinhead will spend nearly 15 years in prison for child pornography charges.

Darrel W. Monzingo, 45, was sentenced today to 161 months after he pleaded guilty this summer to possessing and distributing child pornography. The case began when a Colorado Internet Crimes Against Child Task Force discovered him sharing the material over the Internet.

The investigation led to Spokane,  where the Spokane Police Department executed a search warrant on Dec. 16, 2010.

Officers seized about three dozen items of digital equipment containing thousands of images of child pornography – including some images Monzingo took himself, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Rice said.

Monzingo has been in federal custody since Jan. 20. He was originally charged with producing child pornography. In March, he was assaulted by a self-proclaimed skinhead who was later convicted after a bench trial.
  

An Athol, Idaho, man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a child pornography charge related to illicit material found during a search of his home in September 2010.

Samuel Ted Ussery, 50, faces up to five years in prison and three years of probation after pleading guilty to transportation of an obscene matter. He's scheduled to be sentenced March 26 by Judge Edward Lodge in U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene.

An investigator with the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force began investigating Ussery in July 2010 after discovering that a computer with an IP address belonging to him used file sharing software to access child pornography.

A federal search warrant executed at Ussery's home at 6203 E. Highway 54 revealed computer equipment with images of child pornography that had been deleted but were able to be recovered, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A Cheney man who already went to federal prison for distributing child pornography using his former co-worker's stolen identity is to return for a 10-year sentence for another child porn charge.

John Alan Harmon, 58, is to serve 120 months in federal prison and will be on probation for the rest of his life under a sentence imposed this morning in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

He's to forfeit $120,000 in lieu of the forfeiture of his home in Cheney. Investigators found electronic equipment with about 36,000 images of child pornography in Harmon's home during a search in January 2010. Harmon was already a registered sex offender after leaving prison in 2005 after serving three years for distributing child pornography.

Harmon has been in jail since his arrest on Jan. 10. A plea deal dismissed a sentencing enhancement that mandated a 15-year sentence because of Harmon’s prior conviction.

“The network of dedicated law enforcement officers across the country that search for and identify child pornographers (is) invaluable to making our communities safer,” Michael C. Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said in a prepared statement.

A sentencing memorandum prepared by his attorney, Bevan Maxey, said Harmon has a sexual disorder but is otherwise a studious individual.

“Although Mr. Harmon recognizes that his disorder makes him attracted to minors, he has consistently denied ever having any sexual contact with a real child,” according to the memo. “These assertions have repeatedly been confirmed by polygraph tests.”

Still, “Mr. Harmon recognizes, admits to, and regrets the extremely hurtful and damaging nature of the illegal images he possessed,” his lawyer wrote.

A soldier is accused of transporting child pornography from Spokane to Kuwait while on duty with the military.

Jason D. Talbott, 33, pleaded not guilty today to four child pornography charges in U.S. District Court in Spokane. He was allowed to stay out of jail awaiting trial and will reside in Denver, Colo., where he is stationed with the military, according to court documents.

A federal grand jury indicted Talbott Nov. 16 on charges of receipt, possession, distribution and transportation of child pornography, as well as a forfeiture charge that calls for him to relinquish a computer, an external hard drive and a digital book reader.

The charges allege Talbott receiving child pornography in Spokane Valley between June 21, 2005, and April 21, 2009, and possessing the material until March 16. He's accused of distributing the pornography between August 2010 and November 2010, and of transporting a computer with explicit images on it to Kuwait in December 2010.

He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Talbott's release conditions require him to stay away from minors unless another adult is present. He's prohibited from accessing the Internet unless he's required to do so by the military.

According to the Daily Mail, Talbott was identified by federal authorities after he contacted a fake website that advertised children for sex. The website was an undercover Internet sting operation designed by the Department of Homeland Security but has since been shutdown, the newspaper reports.

A 41-year-old Hayden Lake man pleaded guilty Monday to possessing child pornography.

Charley Brigham Leighton II faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and lifetime supervised release when he's sentenced Jan 30 by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in Coeur d'Alene.

A grand jury indicted Leighton in September after the North Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force searched his home on Aug. 26, 2010, and seized computers containing pornography images of children. Leighton told investigators he'd downloaded more than 1,000 images in about a year, according to court documents.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said the images depicted children from Missouri, Georgia, Connecticut, Michigan, Florida, Washington, France, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, England and the Netherlands, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

“Children are our society's most precious resource,” U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson said in a prepared statement. “The federal, state and local law enforcement officers who make up the North Idaho Crimes Against Children Task Force work cooperatively and use every available tool to protect children from online predators.”  

  

A 70-year-old Stevens County man who recently pleaded guilty to child rape has been indicted by a federal grand jury for producing child pornography.

James Ernest Guinn, Jr., is in jail awaiting sentencing in Stevens County Superior Court and arraignment in U.S. District Court, where he was indicted last week on charges of production of child pornography, transportation of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Guinn is accused of producing child pornography with a young girl between August and November 2010, and of transporting child pornography from California to Washington in 2006.

Investigators found child pornography dating back to the 1960s and on several kinds of media, ranging from digital images in computer files, to video footage and 8 mm movie film, according to the Stevens County Prosecutor's Office.

Guinn faces up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted. He's to be arraigned in Spokane on Oct. 6. He already faces 93 to 123 months in state prison after pleading guilty to first-degree rape of a child Tuesday in Stevens County.
  

A Coeur d'Alene man who downloaded child pornography and shared it with other Internet users has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.

 Scott Tyler Aresvik, 25, also is to pay $1,750 in restitution to a child identified in one of the nine pornographic images and 91 videos found on his computer after investigators searched his home in Coeur d'Alene on Dec. 15, 2009, according to a sentence imposed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene.

The investigation began when the Shoshone County Sheriff's Office learned Aresvik's computer was making child pornography available for download on the Internet.

Aresvik pleaded guilty to possessing sexually explicit images of minors in March after a grand jury indicted him in January. His plea requires him to forfeit his computer and electronic storage equipment.

Aresvik told FBI agents he'd been downloading child pornography for about one year, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. In addition to 60 months in prison, he'll be on probation for 10 years.

“Individuals who use the Internet to access, view and share child pornography mistakenly believe their anonymity will protect them,” Wendy Olson, U.S. Attorney for Idaho, said in a prepared statement. “Federal, state and local law enforcement are committed to working together with prosecutors to identify and prosecute these individuals. We will continue to use every available tool to apprehend and convict them.”

More information is available at  www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Felony charges against a registered sex offender have been dismissed on technical grounds after a federal judge ruled that the search warrant used to find hundreds of images of child pornography on the suspect’s computer was invalid. 

Andrew V. Davis, 34, of Deer Park, faced at least 15 years in federal prison if convicted, but U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush concluded that police failed to disclose when seeking the search warrant that key information came from a girl who had lied to detectives in other cases.

By throwing out the search warrant, it rendered the evidence against Davis inadmissible.

“Of course he is relieved that the case was dismissed,” said Davis’s defense lawyer, Aaron Rasmussen. “It’s embarrassing because of the nature of the charges.”

Read the rest of Tom Clouse's story here.

Past coverage:

Feb. 18: Sex offender faces child porn charges

A Coeur d'Alene man was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

Cyle Anthony Wyckoff, 35, pleaded guilty to possession of sexually explicitly images of minor in December 2010 after members of the multiagency North Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force searched his home in July 2009.

Police began investigating Wyckoff in November 2008 after developing information that a computer registered to him contained child pornography. A forensic examiner found 49 images and 65 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The images were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which confirmed that least some of the images were of identified minors,  including children from Washington state, Connecticut, Utah, Kentucky, Belgium, Germany, England, and Russia.

In addition to 84 months in prison, Wyckoff will be on probation for 10 years and will pay $3,000 restitution to his victims, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge ruled.

“Crimes against children taint our communities and do harm that reverberates, at times, for generations,” U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson said in a prepared statement. “In Idaho, federal, state and local law enforcement officers work together in cases such as this one to ensure that those who traffic in these images are caught and punished.”

For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

A self-described skinhead says he has prepared a speech to read at his federal bench trial this afternoon for allegedly assaulting an accused child molester.

James D. Bacon, 23, is charged with misdemeanor assault for punching Darrell W. Monzingo, 44, as the men shared a holding cell at the Thomas S. Foley United States Courthouse on March 10.  The assault was captured on video, accoridng to a trial brief.

In an April 9 jailhouse letter to The Spokesman-Review, Bacon said he is a member of the Valhalla-Bound Skinhead movement, which was founded by Keegan Van Tuyl. Van Tuyl is scheduled to be released from federal prison in September. Authorities consider him extremely dangerous.

Bacon said his three-page speech will shock the judge.

“However, it is written with an eloquent passion from my heart,” Bacon wrote. “It is by no mean's vulgar, & it addresses my beliefs as a skinhead, as a man, & as a person utterly disgusted with sex offenders.”

Bacon wrote that he hopes victims of sex crimes can be consoled by “knowing that people like myself are fighting in their honor.”

Bacon, who was convicted of armed robbery in 2004, was wanted for a felony drug violation and Department of Corrections warrant when he ran from police near Wellesley Avenue and Regal Street on Dec. 7.

Police arrested him in a struggle, then realized he was armed with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun.

Monzingo, whose trial is set for September, faces up to 30 years in prison after Spokane police found child pornography during a search of his home in the 3400 block of E. Fairview Ave. on Dec. 16. He's charged with manufacturing the material.

A child molester was sentenced today to 12 years in federal prison for possession child pornography.

Donald D. Holloway, 51, of Valley, Wash., received a longer sentence because of previous conviction in Stevens County for second-degree and third-degree child molestation.

The level 3 sex offender was arrested in December 2009 after three computers containing child pornography were seized from his home 2900 block of Bakie Road in Valley, along with digital media and printed images.

Holloway was already on probation for a 2002 marijuana conviction. He also was convicted of indecent liberties in 1981.

“Repeat offenders have proven that they have no place in our neighborhoods,” Michael Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said in a prepared statement.

The case was prosecuted under the federal Project Safe Childhood initiative.

Accordng to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Project Safe Childhood (PSC) Initiative has five major components:

• Integrated federal, state, and local efforts to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases, and to identify and rescue child victims

• Participation of PSC partners in coordinated national initiatives

• Increased federal enforcement in child pornography and enticement cases

• Training of federal, state, and local law enforcement agents

• Community awareness and educational programs

To report these crimes, visit www.cybertipline.com or call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s hotline at 1-800-843-5678.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.