WASHINGTON COUNTY — Personnel from Pinterest provided authorities with a tip that led to the arrest of two Washington County men Wednesday on a variety of charges.
During the course of investigating the Pinterest report regarding an image of a nude child, it was revealed that the men had allegedly concealed a recording device to record people using the bathroom without their knowledge.
On Jan. 27, representatives of the social networking site filed a CyberTipline report notifying authorities that one of their users had uploaded or pinned an image of child pornography to their Pinterest board, according to a probable cause statement filed by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in support of the arrest.
Pinterest defines “boards” as a collection of Pins, usually organized around a theme or topic. Users can invite other people to save Pins to their boards, which may be public or secret.
The reported image depicts a young, nude boy standing in front of a mirror, according to the statement. The pornographic image was captioned “One of my all time favorite pics :)” and saved to a board named “Gorgeous Boys.”
Through the IP address provided by Google, the suspects were identified as 21-year-old Landon Dale Culver and 28-year-old Brad Vernon Cahoon, according to the statement.
On Wednesday, members of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security executed a search warrant on Culver and Cahoon’s residence, the report stated. The two men were located inside the residence.
“During the interview of both individuals, each admitted to ‘re-pinning’ pictures from other Pinterest boards to theirs,” the arresting deputy wrote in the statement. “Both said they thought since the pictures were on Pinterest, the people in the picture would have to be (of) legal age.”
While conducting a forensic exam of computers seized at the residence, authorities found several videos that appeared to be “covertly” recorded, the report stated.
“These videos were recorded in the bathroom area. The camera was positioned in a profile view of the toilet,” the deputy stated. “Landon Culver admitted they had bought a camera that is disguised as a phone charger you plug into an outlet. Landon admitted that both he and Brad had set this camera up in the bathroom when they have had friends over.”
While executing the search warrant, authorities allegedly saw various items of drug paraphernalia in plain sight, including a glass bong, a plastic bong, a grinder with residue and an ashtray with burnt residue, the deputy wrote in the sworn statement.
Authorities also found several Ziploc bags containing suspected marijuana as well as jars with marijuana residue, the report stated.
“Both Landon and Brad admitted to using marijuana,” the deputy stated. “Landon said they use marijuana every other day, while Brad said they use it every day.”
Authorities also located several rifles inside the residence, including a Winchester, X-bolt, Ruger 10-22, Ruger 22 and Mossberg shotgun, the report stated, along with several other firearms including a Keltec, Sig Sauer and a Windham 223.
Culver and Cahoon were arrested and transported to the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.
The Washington County Attorney’s Office filed information in 5th District Court accusing both Culver and Cahoon of six third-degree felony counts of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, five class A misdemeanor counts of voyeurism by concealed electronic equipment, along with two class B misdemeanor counts of drug and drug paraphernalia possession.
Both men are scheduled to appear before 5th District Judge G. Michael Westfall for their initial court appearance on Feb. 28.
Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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