25-year-old pleads guilty to possessing ‘extreme’ child pornography
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IDAHO FALLS – A 25-year-old Idaho Falls man pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on Tuesday.
Teagan Swanson was originally charged with 10 felony counts of willfully possessing or accessing child sexually exploitative material.
As part of a plea agreement, Swanson pleaded guilty to three counts of willfully possessing or accessing child sexually exploitative material, and the prosecution agreed to dismiss the other charges and recommend a retained jurisdiction, otherwise known as a rider, at sentencing.
Swanson also agreed to pay full restitution on all charged and uncharged crimes. He is expected to appear for sentencing on May 29 in front of District Judge Bruce Pickett.
The plea agreement is not binding on the court, meaning Pickett does not have to agree to either party’s recommendations for sentencing.
Background
According to court documents, on Aug. 5, 2022, an Idaho Falls Police detective was assigned a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The tip stated MediaLab/Kik discovered one of its users uploaded three “extreme” videos of child sexual abuse material to a Kik account in April. According to the IP address, the user was believed to be located in eastern Idaho.
“These videos from the cyber tip show violent and forceful child rape acts with females as young as 4 to 5 years old up to approximately 14 years old,” the detective wrote in documents.
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On Jan. 19, 2023 a search warrant was executed at the Idaho Falls home where Swanson lived. He was taken to the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office for an interview.
The detective asked Swanson about the internet accounts he used – specifically his Kik account. He initially told the detective he didn’t remember what his username was. But Swanson did say that a username suggested by the detective may have been his in the past, according to court documents.
Swanson said his Kik account was shut down or banned but wasn’t sure of the date. The detective said that his account was still active, at least until May 2022.
Later in the interview, Swanson admitted to having the Kik account username and remembered when it was banned, documents said.
The detective asked him about the three videos that were uploaded to Kik. He admitted that he would receive the video links from groups on Kik and even said he would send links back to the group.
“Swanson recognized what he did was wrong by sharing those images and links,” a detective wrote.
Swanson told the detective that Kik was the only app where he viewed child pornography.
The detective said Swanson talked about pornography addiction. The detective asked him what percentage of the pornography Swanson had ever viewed was of children. He didn’t answer the question directly but said it was just a “handful of times … not every day,” documents said.
The detective repeated the question again and Swanson allegedly said, “Maybe 10% of the time.”
In documents, the detective asked Swanson what the youngest child he ever saw on the internet was. Swanson said 15 to 16 years old. On Jan. 25, the detective examined Swanson’s phone.
“In total, I found approximately 158 images of (child pornography) just on this one device. Further examinations of Swanson’s other devices are forthcoming,” the detective wrote.
These images showed multiple children who were as young as infants being sexually abused.