25-year-old gets rider after being charged with 10 felony counts of child porn possession

IDAHO FALLS — A 25-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to three counts of possessing child pornography.

District Judge Bruce Pickett sentenced Teagan Swanson to a minimum of two years and a maximum of ten years in prison.

Pickett then retained jurisdiction, placing Swanson on a “rider” program, where Swanson will complete a treatment program in prison for one year. Once the program is over, Pickett can decide whether to send Swanson to prison for his given sentence or release him on probation.

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Swanson initially pleaded not guilty to ten felony counts of willfully possessing child sexually exploitative material.

He later accepted a plea agreement in April, agreeing to plead guilty to three of the 10 counts in exchange for the prosecution dropping the remaining charges and recommending a retained jurisdiction at sentencing.

Sentencing

Swanson’s defense attorney, Curtis Smith, began his arguments by telling the court he had known Swanson and his family for a long time, explaining that this was an especially difficult case for him.

“Judge, this is a case that’s very hard for me, because the young man sitting next to me is somebody that I’ve coached, and that I’ve known for a long time,” said Smith. “His parents are good friends and excellent people in this community, who I’ve watched serve our community in more amazing ways than I could even begin to count today.”

Smith told the court that Swanson has accepted responsibility for his actions, has no previous criminal record, and said there are variables in Swanson’s life, including playing sports as a kid and suffering from concussions, that could’ve led to the decision to download child pornography.

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“He played a lot of sports, he suffered a lot of concussions. Approximately three-and-a-half years ago, he experienced a BMX bike concussion that was again, very serious,” said Smith. “There is no doubt, in (the pre-sentence investigator’s) mind, that the concussions that were suffered, and the ongoing concussion about three-and-a-half years ago, really led to this depression and anxiety, which then led to where we are today with this decision making process.”

According to Smith, Swanson was sent a link to child pornography after joining a car/motorcycle group on KIK, a messaging app. He then participated in sending links back to the group and downloading child pornography to his computer.

“My client’s diagnosis is not that he suffers with pedophilia or those kinds of things. In fact, if we put this on a scale or a level, he is way over here on a level that’s so treatable,” said Smith. “And I know that’s hard to talk about, because none of this is good for the reason that we’re here for.”

Bonneville County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lou Harris also argued for Pickett to rule in tandem with the plea agreement, but pointed out that Swanson seems to have a hard time realizing that the children in the pornographic videos are victims of abuse.

“The issue that the investigator had was that Mr. Swanson seemed deeply ashamed that he was caught watching child porn, but was rather detached from the concept that the children were victims, that were being forced to engage in sex acts at very young ages,” said Harris. “We even had a question about forwarding such images to other people, and you don’t know their level of participation in that whole, I guess you’d call it, seedy world.”

Swanson briefly addressed the court through tears, apologizing for the harm he caused.

“I would just like to say how sorry I am, for what happened,” said Swanson. “I can promise that it won’t happen again.”

Pickett then explained his ruling before pronouncing sentence, saying that he could not justify placing Swanson on probation, as he has to set an example for the protection of society.

“You’re 25-years-old. I appreciate your counsel’s discussion about the concussions,” said Pickett. “I was struck frankly when the State said ‘This could be your next door neighbor.” And that’s why I call this a plague on our society, is because it can be. It can be somebody who you know, and is a good person and has a good family.”

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.

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.

The detective asked him about the three videos that were uploaded to Kik. He admitted 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. He then 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.”

The detective then 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.