FARMINGTON — A 35-year-old Air Force staff sergeant has been charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Matthew Kris Harrelson was booked in the Davis County Jail on Thursday following an investigation by the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. The charges were filed in 2nd District Court by the Attorney General’s Office.
Officers began investigating Harrelson in November 2011 after finding an IP address that was downloading and sharing several files with child pornography titles, according to a probable cause statement filed with the court.
Police officers went to Harrelson’s apartment with a search warrant on Jan. 17 and found no one home, according to the document.
After getting a key from the management, officers found one CD with one folder that had six files of child pornography.
The investigating officer in charge of the case learned that Harrelson was “active duty military and worked on Hill Air Force Base,” according to the document. The investigating officer contacted military personnel.
Harrelson told the ICAC officers that he had a friend who had been arrested for downloading child pornography and that his wireless router had been unsecured for a long time, according to the document.
Harrelson told officers he downloaded only songs and movies, according to the document.
Investigating officers took several items to the Intermountain West Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory for a search in February.
Officers found child pornography on a CD, as well as on two laptop computers.
One laptop computer had 18 child pornography videos filed on it, according to the document.
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