Man faces child pornography charges

By Doane Yawger
DYAWGER@MERCEDSUN-STAR.COM
Last Updated: March 15, 2007, 06:30:21 AM PDT

A 23-year-old Atwater man was taken into custody by Merced police on charges of downloading child pornography after computer technicians reported finding porn on the unit they were repairing.

Ramiro Octavio Rocha Lopez was arrested at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Merced Police Department after he demanded officers return his seized computer, according to Cmdr. Tom Martin.

Lopez was booked into Merced County Jail. He is an illegal alien and faces possible deportation, police said.

Detectives Joe Weiss and Jeff Eastman examined the computer and verified that it contained child pornography in a variety of mediums including still photos and video versions. Some of the children on the images are believed to be 3 or 4 years old.

Weiss said Wednesday he served a search warrant at Lopez' residence to see if potential victims were at the home. No one was there but Weiss reported confiscating potential items of evidence.

He said he will be determining if Lopez shared pornographic images on the Internet with others.

Lopez was interviewed by Weiss and admitted viewing and downloading child pornography on the Internet. He denied any inappropriate activity with children but did admit he knew the ages of the children on the images and said he enjoyed viewing the material, Martin said.

On Jan. 23 computer technicians at a local store called police to report that they may have located child porn on a computer that they had been repairing. Patrol officers seized the computer and referred it to the Investigations Division's Computer Forensics Unit.

Martin said detectives learned from Lopez' admissions that he had entered the Untied States illegally in March 2004 and had lived in Colorado for a short time before moving to the Merced-Atwater area two years ago. Officials from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have been contacted.

Martin said investigation into this case will continue and federal authorities are being contacted to expand the scope of the investigation. Weiss said additional charges potentially could be added.

Associate Editor Doane Yawger can be reached at 385-2485 or dyawger@mercedsun-star.com.

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