A Soldotna resident was arrested Thursday on a felony arrest warrant for 20 counts of possession of child pornography, Alaska State Troopers said.
According to a dispatch from troopers published the same day as the arrest, 22-year-old Stephen Foster was contacted by “Task Force Dawnbreaker,” which is made up of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Technical Crime Unit, the federal Homeland Security Investigations unit, and Anchorage Police Department. He was arrested “without incident” and taken to Wildwood Pretrial Facility with bail set at $7,000.
The charging documents are not available in the Alaska Court System’s public database, so it’s unclear on what evidence the warrant was issued.
Court information says that the initial charging document was filed on Dec. 20, and a grand jury indictment was filed only a couple of days later, Dec. 22, when a warrant was also issued — roughly five months before the arrest was made.
According to the indictment, the grand jury charges that Foster “knowingly possessed or knowingly accessed on a computer with intent to view” child sex abuse material on May 12, 2022, roughly a year and a half before charges were brought. Each of the 20 charges say that the alleged crimes occurred in or near Valdez.
Each of the 20 charges in the indictment point to a specific file, either images or videos. Some of the files include dates, including Oct. 30, 2019, Aug. 3, 2021, and March 17, 2022. There are six files that describe April 29, 2022.
Each of the 20 charges of Possession of Child Pornography are Class C Felonies.
No past or future court dates are described for Foster in the court’s system.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
