Bland corrections officer arrested on child pornography charges
Jul. 13—princeton — A corrections officer who was arrested while traveling to his workplace in Bland County, Va. is now facing felony charges after over 600 child pornography images were found on his computer.
Christopher Erickson, 37, of Bluefield was arrested Thursday while on his way to Bland County, Va. where he works as a correctional officer. He was arraigned before Magistrate Mike Crowder.
Crowder set a $250,000 cash-only bond with a condition of home confinement if he is released, according to records at the Mercer County Magistrate Clerk's Office.
Erickson has been charged with felonies including use of minors in filming sexually-explicit conduct and possession of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct involving 600 or more images.
An investigation was started May 23 when Lt. S.A. Sommers with the Mercer County Sheriff's Department received a National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Cyber Tip Line report for investigation. The reporting service provider was Yahoo, Inc., and the report stated that a registered user had uploaded, shared and possessed eight files of suspected child sexual abuse material, according to the criminal complaint. Yahoo provided information including Erickson's name and email address.
After further investigation, Sommers applied for and was granted a state's search warrant by Circuit Court Judge William Sadler to search Erickson's home and served Yahoo with a search warrant that same day. Sommers said that after receiving records from Yahoo, they indicated that Erickson was "actively trading CSAM (child sexual abuse material) on other platforms.
On Thursday, Sommers, with the assistance of other county, state and federal law enforcement officers, executed a search warrant at Erickson's home in Bluefield. The search warrant allowed the search and seizure of evidence relating to the possession, distribution and viewing of child sexual abuse material, Sommers said in the criminal complaint.
Sommers said that he performed a preliminary forsenic examination of Erickson's desktop computer and found "hundreds of digital video and picture files depicting pubescent and prepubescent children engaged in sexually-explicit conduct."
The digital video and picture files contained over 600 images, Sommers said in the complaint.
Sommers said he also located several videos "depicting a male subject setting a camera up in a bathroom and bedroom."
Sommers said he identified the bathroom and bedroom as being the master bedroom and master bathroom in Erickson's home.
Under the West Virginia Code, using of minors in filming sexually-explicit conduct carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 or both. Distribution and exhibiting of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct carries a possible prison sentence of five to 15 years in prison, a fine of up to $25,000 or both.
Contact Greg Jordan at
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
