Newberg Man Arrested for Child Pornography Offenses

PORTLAND, Ore. – Richard Tietjens, 62, of Newberg, was arrested and arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Papak, on a federal indictment charging him with multiple counts of transportation and possession of child pornography. A grand jury returned the indictment earlier this week. The maximum penalty, if convicted, is up to 20 years of in prison, per count, for transporting child pornography, and up to 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography. The transportation charges also carry a mandatory minimum term of five years in prison.

Tietjens is charged with four counts of transportation of child pornography between July and August 2011. According to the indictment, Tietjens emailed child pornography to four yahoo email accounts between July and August 2011, using the email account mystery_daddy@yahoo.com, and possessed child pornography on December 12, 2011, the date law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence.

According to statements at Tietjen’s arraignment, the Newberg Police Department seized a desktop computer with four hard drives from Tietjens’ residence in December 2011, and a forensic examination by the case agent revealed that the devices contained more than 10,000 images of child sex abuse, and more than 4,500 videos of children being sexually abused. According to the prosecutor, the Newberg Police also seized two servers with another 12 hard drives connected to them from Tietjens’ garage, which also contained child pornography. One of the servers was allegedly used to download child pornography using a peer-to-peer software program, and another server was unsecured and used by Tietjens and others to store files, including child pornography. The prosecutor stated that the two servers contained more than 15 terabytes of storage space. According to arguments at the hearing, Tietjens had been actively trading child pornography through email, instant messenger service, and the peer-to-peer program, and the prosecutor argued Tietjens was likely addicted to child pornography based on the size of the collection he had amassed. Tietjens is an IT employee who built his own computer at home and built at least one of the servers. The prosecutor stated that the Newberg police seized more computers and at least one additional server from Tietjen’s residence this past Monday, but the police had not yet examined them.

The government requested that Tietjens be detained pending trial. Magistrate Papak continued the hearing until Monday at the government’s request to allow a forensic examiner to conduct a preliminary review of the newly seized computers to determine whether any of the devices contain additional child pornography.

This investigation was conducted by the Newberg-Dundee Police Department. The investigation began as part of an undercover operation regarding online sexual exploitation of children. The forensic examination was conducted by the Newberg-Dundee Computer Crimes Unit.

U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall praised the work of the Newberg-Dundee Police Department and stated, “The allegations in this case illustrate how innovations in technology have exponentially increased the volume of images of child abuse that one person can amass. Each image of child pornography represents a separate and distinct harm to the child whose abuse is depicted.”

Newberg-Dundee Police Captain Jeff Kosmicki said their Computer Crimes Unit forwarded relevant information to other federal agencies in other jurisdictions that led to additional search warrants being issued and executed.

An indictment is only an accusation of a crime, and a defendant should be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Shoemaker, Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Violent Crimes Unit, as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about internet safety education, please visitwww.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."