A person accused of sexual exploitation of youngsters seems to have stolen Greeley Police Division onerous drives that contained youngster sexual abuse materials whereas working for town of Greeley info expertise division.
Jacob Schmidt, 35, faces eight counts of sexual exploitation of a kid, in line with Colorado court docket information. Metropolis officers declined to reply questions on his employment standing.
Final July, the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Kids obtained a tip in reference to Schmidt after he uploaded two information containing youngster sexual abuse materials to the Verizon cloud from his cellphone, in line with an affidavit for his arrest.
A Weld County Sheriff’s Workplace detective started investigating Schmidt in late February after receiving a report about him from Web Crimes Towards Kids — a nationwide community of activity forces devoted to investigating and prosecuting cybercrime in opposition to youngsters, the affidavit said.
In March, the detective realized of a number of extra ideas reported to NCMEC about Schmidt. Whereas reviewing the information, the detective discovered a number of photographs and movies of younger women performing sexual acts on one another and of sexual acts between younger women and adults, in line with the affidavit. The information dated again so far as 2022, court docket information present.
On June 11, detectives went to Schmidt’s metropolis office, seized his cellphone and requested him to come back to the sheriff’s workplace for an interview.
Through the interview, he instructed detectives that he did watch youngster sexual abuse materials as a result of he was hooked on pornography however all the time deleted it instantly, in line with the affidavit. He additionally admitted to taking onerous drives from the Greeley Police Division, however he mentioned “he was undecided” in the event that they contained youngster sexual abuse materials, in line with the arrest affidavit.
He instructed detectives that he took the onerous drives from Greeley Police with out authorization, then transferred the information to his private cellphone utilizing a tough drive reader, the affidavit said.
Greeley police mentioned they might not touch upon how he accessed the drives, citing the lively investigation.
Schmidt is scheduled for an advisement listening to on June 24. He’s in custody on the Weld County Jail on a $150,000 bail.
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