Charlestown man sentenced to 50 years for child pornography, molestation
Sep. 14—CLARK COUNTY — A Charlestown man convicted of child pornography and child molestation charges has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said Justin Freytag has been ordered to serve the term with the Indiana Department of Corrections.
"This was a particularly troubling case with the facts that were documented in the investigation and it was imperative to me to ensure that he was going to serve a very long prison sentence as a result of his conduct in this," Mull said.
Freytag was arrested in November 2020 following an Indiana State Police investigation.
According to the probable cause affidavit ISP started investigating Freytag after executing a search warrant at 216 Glendale Drive in Charlestown on Nov. 18, 2020.
During the search officers gained access to Freytag's cellphone after he gave them the passcode to his phone. Freytag told police the phone contained between 1,000 and 2,000 images and videos of child pornography.
ISP Detective Andrew Mitchell conducted a search of the phone and told fellow officers he believed there was evidence that someone used the phone to film videos of himself perpetuating sexual acts with children.
Police said the videos were explicit in nature and the male in the videos had a tattoo on his left ring finger. The videos also showed particular patterned bedding that could could show where the crimes occurred.
When interviewing Freytag police noticed he had a tattoo on his left ring finger.
Later on in the investigation police received information that confirmed children in the videos had been receiving child care at Freytag's home and he had been present at times when they'd been there.
The children were under 5 year of age at the time of the abuse.
A second search warrant conducted by police resulted in the discovery of the bedding that was seen in the videos.
"(Freytag) is accused of molesting two different very young children and being in possession of child pornography. There was some videotaping of the molestation that occurred," Mull said. "And the Indiana State Police conducted a thorough investigation. And that investigation resulted in being able to obtain convictions in this case."
Freytag was initially charged with eight felonies. He was facing four counts of possession of child pornography with an aggravating factor, one count of child exploitation with an aggravating factor, three child molesting charges.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of child molesting and two counts of child pornography, resulting in his sentence.
"Certainly two years is longer than I'd like for justice in any case," Mull said. "Because of the COVID backlogs, that is reasonable time frame for disposition for charges, with the thousands of cases backed up in the courts right now."
