Two recent cases of child pornography in Cowlitz County are part of a national uptick in online child exploitation reports across the nation.
One man in Cowlitz County recently was arrested for suspicion of owning child pornography during the pandemic, and another was sentenced. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, online reports of exchanging sexual images of children or trying to meet children to have sex or take images of them increased by 97.5% from 2019 to 2020.
Washington Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Detective Sgt. Brandon James in Seattle said technology reliance during the pandemic’s business and school closures may have contributed to the increase.
“There has been an explosion of these cyber tips through 2020 and 2021,” he said. “Predators are at home, kids are at home, everyone is at home, and the intersection of those two entities meet up online.”
Cowlitz County Crimes
Michael Swogger, 42, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in September in Cowlitz County Superior Court to about five years in prison and three years in community custody for downloading and possessing child pornography. He was also ordered to pay $2,600 in fines.
Swogger, who had a Kalama address when arrested but an Onalaska address when sentenced, admitted he knowingly downloaded and possessed material depicting a minor in sexual acts for stimulation of the viewer in September 2020.
Swogger was arrested in fall 2020 and charged with first-degree dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as well as first- and second-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Law enforcement officers arrested Brian Merrill, 48, of Kalama, in August for suspicion of having more than 200 images of child pornography on his electronic devices and Google account.
In a probable cause statement, Merrill admitted to owning and viewing sexually explicit images of children, but pleaded not guilty in August.
According to the probable cause statement, the arrest came after a tip from the state Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Detectives tracked material of child sexual abuse to a computer near Woodland and additional investigation showed the Google account the images were uploaded to was owned by Merrill. Google supplied detectives with the account’s phone number and email addresses. Cowlitz County officers used a search warrant to also access Merrill’s electronic devices, according to the probable cause statement.
Merrill is charged with seven counts of possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first degree and one count of possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the second degree. His trial is scheduled for Oct. 26.
Investigation
Federal law requires electronic service providers like Google and Snapchat to notify the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children when images of child pornography are accessed. James said ESPs like Google have an “automotive process” to search for criteria like smaller, hairless bodies to find when users access sexually explicit images of children online.
James said he reviews all of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tips for the state and tries to find suspects using available online information like IP addresses, which track computers’ locations, or names and numbers on a Google account.
Most law enforcement agencies don’t have the resources to investigate every tip, he added, and can only focus on those involving multiple crimes. He said about 15% of all National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tips he receives are assigned to local law enforcement agencies to investigate.
