State charges dropped, federal charges filed against man accused of possessing child porn
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POCATELLO — A Pocatello man has been federally indicted on the charge of possessing child pornography.
With the indictment, the Bannock County Prosecutor’s Office has dismissed 19 state charges that were filed against 34-year-old Joshua Christopher Tompkins in December.
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Tompkins was arrested in December following an investigation involving the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children task force, Homeland Security, Pocatello Police Department and Idaho Falls Police Department.
The investigation was initiated in July after a member of the ICAC task force discovered the download of 87 pornographic files, according to federal filings obtained by EastIdahoNews.com. The indictment filing states 36 of those files contained pornographic images involving children.
Through a search warrant, task force investigators discovered Tompkins to be the owner of the IP address used to download the images.
On Dec. 14, Pocatello police, task force investigators, and members of Homeland Security served a search warrant at Tompkins’ home.
Multiple residents of the home agreed to speak with investigators, claiming to have no knowledge of any child pornography being held in the home. Tompkins, however, refused questioning, the filing claims.
While they were searching the home, investigators found a phone they believed to belong to Tompkins. The phone was actively operating the same torrent program that had previously been used to download child pornography.
A forensic investigator with Idaho Falls police accessed the locked files inside the phone, which included pornographic and bondage images of children.
Tompkins was arrested and booked into the Bannock County Jail.
A detective with the ICAC task force spoke with two ex-wives of Tompkins, who each claim to have discovered similar images on phones and laptop computers he owned.
One ex-wife told the detective that she moved to Alaska after discovering images that included Tompkins sexually assaulting an elderly woman in a hospital and a “severely autistic” child.
Another of his ex-wives, Amanda Watkins, told EastIdahoNews.com that she has been in contact with the detective about several incidents.
Watkins told EastIdahoNews.com that she found several pornographic images of children on Tompkins’ computer and reported them. She said she feared for the safety of her children, given the nature of the images.
According to the federal court documents, ICAC detectives are actively investigating the allegations made by Tompkins’ ex-wife.
Tompkins was federally indicted on Feb. 28 because he used the internet to transmit child pornography over state and international borders, the documents say.
No court dates have been set at this time.
Because some of the images recovered involve children under the age of 12 if he was found guilty Tompkins could face up to 20 years in prison.