A 21-year-old Rochester man is scheduled to make his first court appearance after being charged last month in yet another local child pornography case.
Devin Bryce Martin, 21, faces three counts of possession of child pornography and one count of disseminating child porn, all felonies. He's due in court Feb. 26.
The investigation took several months and involved several agencies, the report says, beginning in July 2013 when an adult pornography website contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The adult porn site reviews any images that are uploaded, reporting those that appear to involve children.
The NCMEC discovered the person who uploaded the child's image to the adult porn website was located in Minnesota and contacted an agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's Internet Crimes Against Children unit.
ADVERTISEMENT
The ICAC agent determined the Internet address that provided the image was assigned to a subscriber in Rochester, later identified as Martin. In October 2013, a search warrant was executed at Martin's home; his roommate was home and denied possessing any child porn. His computers were examined and returned.
According to the criminal complaint, Martin acknowledged that he'd lived there since July 2013, was familiar with the adult pornography website that had initiated the investigation and "might have" uploaded some files.
He admitted an interest in child pornography, the complaint says, and said there might be some images on his computer that would qualify. An examination of his phone and computers allegedly turned up about 30 images, many of which had been displayed, then deleted.
Martin told investigators he'd participated in online chats with people who invited him to act on his interest in child pornography, but he maintained he'd never assaulted a child. The forensic examination confirmed the conversations, the complaint says.
The dissemination charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both. The possession counts are punishable by up to five years in prison, a $5,000 fine or both.
