A 19-year-old Winlock man accused of possessing and distributing child pornography made his preliminary appearance in Lewis County Superior Court last week.
Nathanael E. Kupietz was charged with six counts of first-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and three counts of second-degree dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct on Sept. 25, according to court documents.
Bail for Kupietz was set at $25,000 by Superior Court Judge James Lawler, according to the order establishing his conditions of release.
Kupietz was bailed out of the Lewis County Jail on Sept. 28, according to court documents.
The affidavit of probable cause gives the following account of Kupietz’ arrest:
On Sept. 8, a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective received a referral regarding suspected possession of child pornography in the Winlock area.
An investigation led detectives to contacting Kupietz at his residence in Winlock, noting that he was “somewhat evasive with detectives.”
The investigation reportedly revealed that Kupietz was in possession of several images and videos of child pronography and at least one of the videos and two of the images were shared through an online communications platform.
The videos and images reportedly depicted female children from ages 2-9.
A search warrant on the account from the communications platform indicated that it was accessed on multiple occasions between March 12 and April 16.
Kupietz reportedly admitted to having issues with pornography and told his dad, “I’m not going to deny any allegations brought against me by these guys.”
Kupietz is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.
