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Police search Beaver Township home for child porn

1/15/2015 By Gerry Ricciutti

BEAVER TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WKBN) – Just after dawn on Thursday, police from several agencies converged on a home on Woodworth Road in Beaver Township looking for evidence of child pornography.

Police said they found some “suspicious” material on some computer equipment, noting they received some downloads from the home that are sexually oriented.

“Electronic media is being examined. We have found some things that we are going to be taking back for further review,” Ohio BCI agent Jim Ciotti said.

Thursday’s raid was just the latest effort involving the Crimes Against Children unit of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which was formed by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The unit has since been split into teams handling the northern and southern halves of the state.

“Part of our job is to try and identify live victims that may be living in the state of Ohio, or even here in Youngstown. We have had that occur,” Ciotti said.

Specifically, one case led to the conviction of William Brock of Niles, who was sentenced last February to 20 years in prison for having porn on his computer.

“We execute these search warrants several times a month,” Ciotti said.

Local police said without the state’s help, the Beaver Township case and others like it might go unnoticed.

“It would just be a questions of, to catch these people in the past, it would have been somebody had to tell them on them or you would never know,” Beaver Township Police Chief Carl Frost said.

Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene said the Crimes Against Children unit is a valuable resource.

“Not only the Internet crime, Internet porn, but also looks at human trafficking. The BCI also assists us with children’s services on some specialized cases,” Greene said.

One person was taken in for questioning, but no charges have been filed yet.

However, the case could be presented to a grand jury before the end of the month.