Northern Arizona man arrested for possession of child pornography

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — A Cornville man was arrested Friday by the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office for possession of child pornography, following a joint investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Troy Lee Curtis, 48, was taken into custody at his residence. He is charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Curtis remains in custody on $20,000 bond.

"With this arrest, we are sending a message to all consumers of child pornography that they won't be able to escape justice by hiding in cyberspace," said Matt Allen, special agent in charge of HSI Arizona. "HSI and our law enforcement partners will turn every stone and use every investigative tool at our disposal to target predators and those whose actions contribute to the sexual exploitation of children."

Yavapai County Sheriff Scott Mascher added, "The work in this case to prevent further victimization of children in light of the relentless pursuit of the person responsible for these crimes is highly commended."

Curtis first came to the attention of investigators in late 2009, when HSI special agents in Flagstaff and Los Angeles discovered an Internet chat room that was being utilized to distribute child pornography. One chat room user had posted more than 50 images of child pornography to the site. Investigators linked the images to an account belonging to Curtis at his residence.

Authorities subsequently served a search warrant at Curtis' residence, seizing his computer and digital storage devices, which were found to contain several hundred photographs and at least 13 videos showing child pornography. A review of the materials by experts with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children identified known child victims in several of the video files and in nearly 90 of the photographs.

HSI and Yavapai County Sheriff's Office investigators served a second search warrant Friday at Curtis' home. After Curtis admitted downloading and storing child pornography, he was taken into custody. A second computer and additional storage devices were seized during the search and are being examined by investigators.