Rexburg man wanted sex, inappropriate photos from undercover cop posing as 13-year-old girl, court documents say
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Editor’s note: This story contains details of a sexual nature that may be disturbing for some readers. Discretion is advised.
REXBURG — A 22-year-old Rexburg man has been charged with multiple felonies after allegedly talking to an undercover officer he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
The case against Benjamin Hicks was filed in court on Oct. 17; however, the documents were not made public until Thursday.
Hicks was charged with five felonies for distribution of child sexually exploitative material.
He was taken into custody after a three-month-long investigation. A Minidoka County judge granted an arrest warrant for Hicks, according to a news release.
The Rupert Police Department, the Rexburg Police Department, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and the Office of the Idaho Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force executed the warrant on Oct. 17 in Rexburg.
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According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by the Rupert Police Department, a detective with the department was on the social media platform Kik in June, posing as a 13-year-old girl.
The account was sitting idle when the detective received a private message from an account registered to Hicks. However, he was going by the name Aaron.
On June 24, the detective, who was still pretending to be a girl, initially engaged in a non-sexual conversation with Hicks. However, the conversation took a sexual turn when Hicks started asking for sexual content.
On July 13, Hicks requested self-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of the 13-year-old, which the detective posing as the girl refused to give. Throughout the course of the conversation, Hicks reportedly continued to ask for CSAM, court documents said.
During the conversation, Hicks told the detective he was from Rexburg, was 22, was married, worked at night at an assisted living facility and was a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho.
Hicks allegedly told the detective posing as the girl he wanted to travel to Rupert to have sexual relations with her. Several times throughout the conversation, the detective told Hicks the fake girl was 13 years old. However, it did not deter him, and he continued to ask for sex and CSAM, according to court documents.
As the conversation continued, the detective posing as the girl told Hicks a former adult boyfriend had sexually abused her and taken CSAM images and videos of her. “She” also said this former boyfriend had also subjected her to adult pornography and CSAM.
On Aug. 5, Hicks asked the detective if she had any other social media accounts. “The girl” said she had an account on MeWe. Hicks began communicating over MeWe as well as Kik.
During a conversation on MeWe, Hicks sent images of his face.
Eventually, phone numbers were exchanged. Hicks questioned whether she was a “scam” and requested to speak to her former adult boyfriend, court documents said.
The detective then posed as the former boyfriend.
Hicks began texting who he thought was the former boyfriend and asked him to send CSAM of the girl.
On Aug. 28, while the detective was posing as the ex-boyfriend, Hicks indicated that he had a social media platform called Telegram. Hicks told the former boyfriend he collected CSAM and would be willing to send his collection in exchange for CSAM of the girl.
Hicks allegedly sent CSAM through Telegram. He sent an inappropriate video involving a 12-year-old girl, police said. He continued to send multiple videos of girls between the ages of three and 14 years old, court documents said.
The detective found out that Hicks lived in an apartment complex in Rexburg.
Then on Sept. 5, Hicks allegedly sent videos to the detective who was posing as the ex-boyfriend, with several girls between the ages of one and four. The videos showed the girls being sexually abused.
On Sept. 14, the detective contacted the Rexburg Police Department and requested assistance to find Hicks.
On Oct. 11, the detective posing as the girl found a message from the previous month that had an image of Hicks and a message that said it was from “Aaron.” Hicks told her his real name was Ben Hicks.
Hicks was arrested a few days later and taken to the Madison County Jail, where he was held for several days. As of Thursday, he had been booked into the Mini-Cassia Criminal Justice Center on a $75,000 bond.
He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Oct. 31 at 3 p.m. at the Minidoka County Courthouse.
Each charge is punishable by up to 30 years in jail and a $50,000 fine.
Though Hicks has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.