Bend-La Pine school bus driver jailed on child porn charges

(Update: More details from Sgt. McConkey)

A 62-year-old Sunriver man who has been a Bend-La Pine Schools bus driver for the past year was arrested Friday on charges of downloading child pornography on a home computer, police said.

Bend police detectives, assisted by Sunriver police, became aware Wednesday of a Sunriver resident downloading child pornography images, Sgt. Juli McConkey said.

An investigation found the images were being downloaded at a home in the 17000 block of Wickiup Lane, McConkey said.

Further investigation identified a school bus driver, Karl Trinrud, as a possible suspect, she said. The two dates identified when images were downloaded were Jan. 20 and Feb. 7 of this year.

On Friday, Bend police detectives and Sunriver officers served a search warrant at Trinrud’s home. McConkey said Trinrud had been in contact with detectives and was identified as the suspect who downloaded the images in question.

Trinrud was not home at the time of the raid and was arrested at work, the sergeant said. He was taken to the Deschutes County Jail and booked on three first-degree counts of encouraging child sex abuse. He was being held on $75,000 bail.

McConkey said Bend police are continuing the investigation and more charges could be forthcoming.

The sergeant said Bend-La Pine Schools administrators were notified Friday of Trinrud’s arrest.

Trinrud became a bus driver for the district one year ago as of Thursday, according to Julianne Repman, the school district’s director of communication and safety. She said Trinrud will be placed on administrative leave pending further investigation.

McConkey told NewsChannel 21 the U.S. Department of Justice’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force gets information, including IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, for computers “when people upload or download child pornography.”

“It takes about a month for (the task force) to determine where it’s coming from, then they give that information to the jurisdiction” — in this case Sunriver, McConkey said.

Sunriver police asked Bend police for assistance after receiving the information, she added.

In her news release, M cConkey said, “We would like to thank the Bend-La Pine Schools and the (U.S.) Departmen t of Justice Internet Crimes Against Children Task force for their assistance in the investigation.”