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Homeland Security: 500 ‘notable’ files found on Frisco man’s computer in child porn case

Kenneth Scott Casey, 59, faces charges of sexual exploitation of a child, a class-four felony, for allegedly possessing child pronography on his computer. A motion was filed to combine the case with two misdemeanor charges Casey currently faces.
Courtesy of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office |

The Fifth Judicial District Attorney’s Office presented two witnesses on Tuesday to establish probable cause for charges of child exploitation against a Summit County man. Kenneth Scott Casey, 59, was arrested on July 7, 2015 for allegedly possessing more than 20 files of child pornography.

Deputy district attorney John Franks called a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent who had conducted a forensic exam of Casey’s computer to the witness stand first.

Special agent Paul Anderson said he received a computer tower and a flash drive from Frisco police on June 24, 2015 after they had obtained a search warrant. Upon examining both devices, he said he found 537 photos and 19 videos deemed “notable” as evidence.



He noted that while he did not know the exact age of those depicted in the photos and videos on the hard drives, “Based on my experience as a human being, I can recognize it as being young.”

“If I saw something that’s young and of a sexual nature, I bookmarked it as notable,” he added.



He estimated that the depicted individuals were between ages two and 16. The “creation date” of the images goes back as early as 2002, indicating the files occupied a space on Casey’s hard drive at the posted date.

A woman submitted the computer tower and flash drive to Frisco police days before, after she said she had discovered child pornography on Casey’s computer. In a police statement, the woman said she copied some of the files from the computer to a flash drive as evidence, but Anderson said he did not find any illegal content in the flash drive.

He was able to analyze three of the four hard drives, while the fourth was corrupted, possibly due to age. According to the woman’s statements, Casey’s computer was homemade, which matched Anderson’s description of the device as having no serial number and not being a brand name computer.

In a cross-examination with private defense attorney Sommer Spector, Anderson noted that the computer had an administrator and guest account, the latter of which the woman said she could access. Anderson said that as a guest, she should not have access to the administrator’s account. He noted that the administrator account had last been logged in to on June 18.

While Anderson said he did locate deleted Internet searches on Casey’s computer, the majority of the images he marked as potential evidence were not deleted.

PIECING THE CASES TOGETHER

Frisco police officer Neil Brown was the second witness called to the stand by the prosecution. Brown submitted the hard drive to Anderson after receiving a report from another Frisco police officer.

Upon viewing the returned report from Anderson, he said that the files appeared to be child pornography.

He said that, in a statement, the woman explained she had discovered the pornography while she was on Casey’s computer removing some images after the two separated. The two had been staying at the Baymont Inn and Suites after moving to Summit County from Colorado Springs, Fairplay and Amarillo, Texas.

“She was in the process of breaking up with Mr. Casey after a previous domestic violence case,” Brown said.

Casey had been involved in a previous domestic violence misdemeanor case on June 18 for twisting the woman’s wrist and causing her pain, Brown said. A restraining order was filed, but Casey was arrested again on June 18 for allegedly violating it by sending the woman two emails asking for half of the payment for staying at the Baymont Inn.

In a cross-examination with Spector, Brown said that the woman came into the Frisco Police Department on June 21 with Casey’s computer tower, flash drive and printouts of the emails she had received. She told police that the child pornography could be found on the hard drive under a file titled, “stuff.”

One week later, she submitted a second flash drive to Frisco Police that she said contained copies of the illicit material on Casey’s computer. Brown said the second flash drive was not submitted as evidence, as Anderson was already in possession of the hard drives.

Spector noted that according to the arrest affidavit, the woman said she had no idea how long the child pornography had been on Casey’s computer.

Fifth Judicial District Judge Mark Thompson said that according to Colorado Court of Appeals case People v Marsh, the term “possession” is not deemed to be exclusive in nature, meaning exploitative materials discovered in one’s Internet cache would count as possession.

“The court finds there is sufficient probable cause to justify the charge here as there is evidence of each of the elements,” Thompson added.

A motion to join the child exploitation charge with the two misdemeanor cases was filed and will be discussed in court on Nov. 16, at 1 p.m.


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