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SALT LAKE CITY — A child pornography case that started in Utah led an Internet investigator to an even bigger fish in Ohio.
That man in Cleveland, 49-year-old Darin Casper, now faces 150 counts of sex crimes against children. Prosecutors say he made pornographic videos and photos of young boys and shared it on the Internet.
"The web goes everywhere, and it's so easy to trade child pornography anywhere in the world," said Patty Reed, field commander for the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
Reed says this is a story about the persistence of a Utah investigator who kept pulling at every strand in this case in order to protect kids from exploitation wherever they live.
One early strand led investigators to 27-year-old Dino Prste of Salt Lake City. Prste was charged May 10 by the Utah Attorney General's Office with 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Prste was initially interviewed during Operation Frostbite, a month-long investigation that ended in January with 14 arrests; 25 additional suspect interviews; and the seizure of 35 computers, three cell phones, and more than 100 CDs containing tens of thousands of illegal child pornography images.
ICAC Special Agent Allen White developed a case against Prste, who now faces 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and according to court papers used his computer to share child porn.
"From there, we take every little bit of information and explore that, as best that we can," Reed said.
White did just that. Through further investigation, he found emails from Prste to Casper, and tipped off Ohio investigators that the men were sharing photographic and video images of nude children and children engaged in sex acts.
Members of the Ohio ICAC Task Force arrested Casper after a search of the home in mid-April. They seized a half dozen computers, hundreds of CDs, three digital cameras, 55 VHS tapes and three hard drives from his home. The investigators seized approximately 1,500 pornographic images of kids.
"Ohio ICAC investigators are exploring all avenues, trying to identify the children who are depicted in these child pornography files," Reed said.
As a result of Agent Allen White going that extra mile, those children were saved, because Ohio had no idea this was going on in Mr. Casper's home.
–Patty Reed, Utah ICAC Task Force
But this case goes even deeper than that. Casper is accused of operating a web for sharing child pornography from his home, which is also where his wife ran a day care.
Right now, there's no evidence that any children at the day care were photographed, abused or otherwise exploited, but investigators in Cleveland are looking into that.
The daycare closed voluntarily the day after Caper's arrest, but neighbors say they're sickened by the thought that Casper made child pornography in the same home where children were cared for.
"It's very scary, because I have two kids," says Michelle McAdams. "We live just around the corner, and that's terrible."
Casper pleaded not guilty Wednesday and will stay in jail on a $100,000 bond.
"As a result of Agent Allen White going that extra mile, those children were saved, because Ohio had no idea this was going on in Mr. Casper's home," Reed said.
The Utah field commander says there could even be more arrests from this case as investigators in other states track down their leads on the file sharing.
