LEWISTON – Earlier this year in New Jersey, a team of investigators began reviewing photographs of a young boy who had yet to be identified. The photos were disturbing. The boy had been photographed in pornographic poses and abuse was apparent.
With no clues to the boy’s identity, investigators from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Child Victim Identification Program began to look at the photographs more closely.
There, in one of the computer images, the boy was seen wearing a Boy Scouts of America uniform. Experts with CVIP zoomed in close on the photograph, and new details began to emerge. The patch had been issued in Nassau County and the photographs were taken between January and May of 2004. With computer forensics at work, investigators were even able to determine what kind of camera had been used to take the pictures.
It didn’t take long after that. The boy was identified and interviewed. That led to other victims and to a suspect. In August, police located and arrested a 45-year-old man who worked at a security company and who volunteered with the Boy Scouts.
Inside the man’s home, police found sexual devices and boys’ underwear, labeled with the names of the victims and dates of his contact with them. Police also recovered a cache of pornographic photos and videos of the victims. The suspect in the case is currently jailed in Queens in New York City. He faces 40 years in prison.
Police have come a long way since the days of using magnifying glasses to examine evidence. Computers have become integral components in the investigation of child porn and other crimes that involve the Internet or software.
In Lewiston, retired police Sgt. James Rioux hopes to see that kind of progress continue to make leaps forward rather than steps back.
Rioux works with the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force, which has cracked dozens of local cases and worked on others spanning the globe. Recently, Rioux wrote to a group of Maine representatives with piles of data on computer crimes and related issues.
“I’m hoping that as our representatives, you will push for stricter laws regarding child pornography and sex offenses regarding children, such as raising the level of crimes to serious felonies and even mandatory sentencing,” Rioux wrote.
The letters went out to Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe as well as Rep. Tom Allen. Rioux wants more focus on crimes against children. He also wants the task force to remain functional to that end.
“We need to be proactive here, not reactive,” he wrote. “Funding of the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force through the state budget is one place we need to start. This unit is vitally important to law enforcement in Maine but is expected to survive on a small grant and no state funding.”
As of Tuesday, there were only perfunctory replies to Rioux’s letter from Collins, Snowe and Allen.
“I got an automated response. It basically tells me that they received my letter,” Rioux said. “That’s it. I’d like to hear more from them.”
More information about the task force can be found on the Internet at www.mcctf.org.
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