Registered sex offender arrested for child pornography
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BLACKFOOT — A registered sex offender living in Blackfoot was arrested last week for possessing child pornography.
Joseph D. Hornof, 38, remains held on a $1 million bond in the Bingham County Jail after being charged with eight felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child. Investigators with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force were seen outside Hornof’s home Wednesday morning and afternoon.
Investigators were tipped off in February about Hornof after the National Center for Missing and Exploiting got a tip about child pornography tied to Hornof’s MeWe social networking account, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by EastIdahoNews.com. Court documents describe six horrific and graphic images of children being sexually abused.
In March, a detective tied to North Carolina’s ICAC Task Force contacted Idaho authorities. The detective informed local investigators that Hornof was tied to a case he was investigating.
The North Carolina detective’s case file said Hornof contacted an undercover law enforcement account online making comments about having sexually abusing young girls. Hornof would refer to the girls as pizza and would refer to their age by how aged the cheese was, according to court documents.
When conversing with the undercover agent, Hornof would allegedly send what he called “cheese pizza,” which were sexually explicit videos of children.
In the online messages, Hornof claimed to have last had sexual contact with a child in 2012, three years after he was convicted for sex abuse of a child under 16 in Bannock County. Court records show a judge placed Hornof on a rider program before he was released on probation.
The ICAC team in Idaho moved in on Wednesday, serving a search warrant at Hornof’s home. On his laptop, investigators say they found images of child pornography as well as searches for child sex abuse material.
Investigators also interviewed Hornof, when he admitted to searching for child pornography. He also said he created a pedophilia group on the MeWe website used to share and send child pornography amongst different users, according to charging documents.
Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said in a news release the Blackfoot Police Department, Bingham County Sheriff’s Office, United States Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations and Bingham County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office assisted the ICAC Unit with the arrest.
A spokesperson for MeWe said the platform has removed Hornof and the pedophilia group from MeWe.
“MeWe has a strong Terms of Service that prohibits illegal activity of any kind,” MeWe said in a statement. “MeWe is vigilant about this issue and we have an outstanding Trust and Safety Team that works hard every day to proactively investigate and remove TOS-violaters. Illegal activity is reported to law enforcement at MeWe’s discretion, and law enforcement can follow procedures in our terms to request information from us.”
Hornof is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 20.
Although Hornof is accused of crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.