WV- 911 official arrested for child porn

The purpose here is to show folks how the police are finding illegal images on home computers and often, as in this case, without the knowledge of the owner of the computer.

Here the owner of the computer was using a P2P (Peer to Peer) program. Those programs give access to those computers by anyone else who has a similar type program. That is exactly how the police were able to search his computer files without a warrant and finding at least one image then got a warrant to search further.

7-22-2008 West Virginia:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A longtime Kanawha County Metro 911 administrator was arrested and accused of possessing child pornography, including pictures of his own daughter.

Police acted on a search warrant for the home of the administrator, identified as James Curtis Sorgman of South Charleston.

Child pornography was found on his home computer, police say. The computer at Sorgman's office has been seized as well, officials say.

Sorgman, 49, has been suspended without pay. He has worked at the 911 center for 16 years, officials said.

The investigation was carried out during the past several weeks by the Kanawha Bureau of Investigation, an cooperative unit of several area police agencies.

Investigators first received a tip from West Virginia State Police, which in turn had gotten information from a unit called the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

The pornography was located using Limewire (actually this is a well known P2P program), an Internet service in which information can be shared among numerous users, according to a criminal complaint filed at Kanawha Magistrate Court.

Investigators obtained the file name that was downloaded and the Internet protocol address from which the file was downloaded and used that to figure out the physical address on Kingswood Drive, where James Sorgman lives.

Sorgman admitted in a statement to the police that he had downloaded and saved several digital files containing child pornography, according to the criminal complaint.

Sorgman allowed police to search his home and computer, and a warrant was issued for the police to do so, according to the complaint.

During the search of the home, police found several printed images of young females in sexually explicit poses, according to the complaint. Several images appeared to show exposed breasts and vaginas or depicted minor females involved in sexually explicit activity, police said.

Police also found seven printed images of a female that appeared to be a minor child in sexually explicit poses. Sorgman identified this female as his daughter, the complaint said.

Sorgman told authorities that he took the pictures of his daughter while she was between the ages of 12 and 14, according to the criminal complaint.

Sorgman has more than 20 years in metro communications overall, working most recently as an administrator in the address and mapping division with Metro 911.

Kent Carper, President of the Kanawha County Commission, said that he was informed of the situation Monday and said it would be dealt with swiftly.

Sorgman was arrested by deputies Monday and was immediately relieved of duty, Carper said.

"The 911 dispatchers do a wonderful job with a high level of trust placed on them and we will take this very seriously," Carper said.

Internal affairs is investigating the allegations along with the Kanawha County Sheriffs Department and other agencies. ..News Source.. by Ashley B. Craig, Daily Mail staff