Door County real estate developer charged with possession of child pornography
STURGEON BAY - A Baileys Harbor man and real estate developer is facing as much as 250 years in prison and $1 million in fines after he was charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
Brian P. Bonovich, 50, was arrested last month after police searched his home, computer and mobile devices and found more than 70 images or videos of pornography involving infants or preteen children, according to the criminal complaint against him. He made an initial appearance by video from Door County Jail on Nov. 14.
According to the complaint, on March 1, 2022, a Sturgeon Bay Police Department officer was reviewing an online monitoring site that detects online uploads and downloads of child abuse material (CAM) on peer-to-peer websites and found a significant number of CAMs downloaded within the previous two weeks to an internet protocol address in Door County.
The officer was able to obtain two of the main CAM files from the FBI and the Marathon County and Racine County sheriff's offices. They then viewed the files and determined they contained child pornography, leading them to get a search warrant to identify the location of the IP address downloading the images, which turned out to be Bonovich's home.
As a result, investigators executed a search warrant of the home May 4, 2022, and seized a number of electronic devices, including one device from which the Sturgeon Bay officer could not obtain a forensic image of existing and deleted files, folders and searches. They sent the device to the U.S. Secret Service, which returned the device's forensic image to the officer around Oct. 17 of this year.
The complaint says subsequent investigation by the officer indicated Bonovich was the only person to use the device, and a torrent program, which connects multiple users of files that don't come from a central server, had been downloaded to the device and was used to download the pornographic materials. The officer also determined Bonovich conducted a number of online searches for CAMs and appeared to view the downloaded CAMs on Feb. 15 and 18, 2022.
Each of the 10 charges is a Class D felony, each carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years and a maximum $100,000 fine if convicted. Because he is an adult, Bonovich also could face a surcharge of $500 for each downloaded image associated with the charges.
Bonovich is scheduled to be back in court Feb. 16. A cash bond of $7,500 was set by Circuit Court Judge David Weber and has been posted. Under terms of his bond, Bonovich cannot have unsupervised contact with minors and had to surrender his passport to the court before he was released.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@doorcountyadvocate.com.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Baileys Harbor developer charged with possession of child pornography
