Travis A. Desjardins makes an appearance in Lewis County Superior Court Monday afternoon in Chehalis.
A Glenoma man who is accused of being in possession of child pornography made his preliminary appearance in Lewis County Superior Court on Monday.
Travis A. Desjardins, 29, was charged with four counts of first-degree possession of depictions of minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in June.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office was tipped off about Desjardins’ alleged activity by Internet Crimes Against Children, a federal task force that responds to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation.
The ICAC notified the Sheriff’s Office that a Dropbox account with a user in Lewis County had child pornography flagged on it. A Sheriff’s Office detective reviewed the Dropbox data and found the account belonged to Desjardins.
Detectives reviewed the items in the Dropbox account flagged by the ICAC and found several videos of suspected child pornography.
Dropbox closed the account due to the illegal material.
On March 24, detectives contacted Desjardins about their findings and he admitted to having a Dropbox account for the purpose of receiving pornographic material, however, denied intentionally requesting child pornogrpahy.
Desjardins additionally admitted that that he had been sent child pornographic material, but that he did not finish watching it and deleted it.
Detectives collected two of Desjardins cell phones to be analyzed by the Washington State Patrol. One of the phones reportedly contained several images and a video of pre-adolescent girls.
The other phone, which did not contain any suspected child pornography, had evidence of Desjardins accessing child chat sites, according to the affidavit.
In court on Monday, deputy prosecutor Silvia Irimescu noted that the only reason Desjardins wasn’t initially brought into custody was because he was showing symptoms of COVID-19 and requested bail to be set at $50,000.
Desjardins attorney for the day, Rachael Tiller, argued that an unsecured bail amount would be appropriate due to her client’s willingness to participate in the investigation and the fact that he showed up for his court hearing.
Judge James Lawler sided with the defense and established bail at $20,000 unsecured, meaning Desjardins would only have to pay his bail if he did not appear for any of his court hearings.
Desjardins is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.
