A 39-year-old Soldotna resident was arrested Wednesday, Oct. 30, by the Alaska Bureau of Investigation after investigators said more than 1,000 images and videos representing child sex abuse material were found on a thumb drive he owned.
A dispatch from the bureau posted Thursday says that the Soldotna Major Crimes Unit was told Wednesday that Dawson Hermanns possessed child sex abuse material. He was arrested that afternoon, the dispatch says, on 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
An affidavit by Investigator Edwin Anderson says he was notified of the discovered thumb drive shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday. He met the person who reported the drive — which was found on Hermanns desk and thought to only have been accessed by Hermanns — at Kenai Police Department and viewed its contents.
The drive, Anderson writes, includes images and videos with dates ranging from February 2017 to October of this year that depict children under the age of 18 engaged in conduct that meets the definition of child sex abuse material as outlined in state statute.
Anderson interviewed Hermanns at around 7 p.m., the affidavit says, and he admitted that the drive was his, that it hadn’t been accessed by anyone else, and that he knew it contained child sex abuse material. He was arrested and taken to Wildwood Pretrial Facility with 10 charges of possession of child pornography, all class C felonies.
Hermanns was scheduled for arraignment on Thursday. The state court database hadn’t been updated with further dates as of 2 p.m. on Thursday.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
