Christopher Rieg appears in Lewis County Superior Court on Friday, May 24, 2019.
A Napavine man accused of sending an image depicting child pornography has been arrested and is being held on $100,000 bail.
Christopher M. Rieg, 35, was charged with one count of second-degree dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on April 25, a detective with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office received a tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that someone in the area had distributed child pornography.
The image, the detective learned, had been flagged prior as a “hash file,” or image that had previously been identified as child pornography. The investigation led to an internet provider address in Napavine that belonged to Rieg.
The image depicted a nude female child and adult male, documents indicate.
“Rieg was contacted and denied sending an image of child pornography but did acknowledge he may have sent an image he did not realize was child pornography,” read court documents.
The person he sent the image to said she deleted it and couldn’t remember specifically what it depicted.
During a hearing in Lewis County Superior Court Friday afternoon, Judge R.W. Buzzard imposed $100,000 bail — going beyond the $50,000 bail requested by Deputy Prosecutor Silvia Irimescu.
Irimescu said Rieg had three felony convictions in Washington, including one for failure to register as a sex offender, prompted by out-of-state sexual offenses.
He has an arraignment hearing set for May 29.
