A charge has been dismissed in the case against a Soldotna man accused of possessing child pornography.
Remy Spring, 27, was arrested Jan. 11 at his Soldotna home after a warrant was issued for his arrest by the court in Kenai. Alaska State Troopers wrote in an online dispatch that the Soldotna section of the Alaska Bureau of Investigations Major Crimes Unit had been contacted by the Louisiana Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Unit in June 2016 about “undercover operations” to find people who possess, make or distribute child porn in Louisiana.
Online court records show Spring was charged Jan. 9 with one count of distributing child pornography and six counts of possessing it. The distribution charge was dismissed by a judge at a Jan. 12 arraignment hearing for lack of probable cause, according to Spring’s attorney, Andy Pevehouse.
Spring was identified when a search warrant was served at a Louisiana home and officers determined that he lived there “but had just returned to Soldotna,” troopers wrote in the dispatch. Officers seized Spring’s computer and electronic storage devices from his Soldotna home in July 2016, and they were examined by the Technical Crimes Unit in Anchorage, according to the dispatch. Examiners found “multiple images and videos of children being sexually exploited,” troopers wrote in the dispatch.
The time between the search warrant for Spring’s electronic devices and his arrest was spent gathering evidence, said Sgt. Mark Pearson of the Alaska Bureau of Investigations, via Alaska State Troopers Public Information Officer Megan Peters, in an email.
“The time between those dates reflects the time it can take for a forensic exam to be done on the devices and other cases coming in …” Pearson wrote. “Since there is only one (Technical Crimes Unit) unit … their case load is extremely large.”
Once forensic exams are done, they are sent to the District Attorney’s Office for review, according to Pearson. Filing an arrest warrant takes time as well, he said.
“As soon as we got the warrant we served it the same day,” Pearson wrote.
Spring’s next hearing is set for Feb. 13.
Possessing child pornography, a class C felony, is punishable by a presumptive range of two to 12 years jail time if it is a first felony conviction.
Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@peninsulaclarion.com.
