Bend man arrested on child porn, encouraging abuse charges

A 32-year-old Bend man has been arrested on numerous abuse and child pornography charges after Oregon State Police learned one such image had been uploaded from a home in northeast Bend – and found nearly 300 photos and videos on his cellphone, troopers said Thursday.

The OSP’s Criminal Investigation Division received information in late June from the Oregon Department of Justice Internet Crimes Against Children’s Task force that an image of a child being abused had been uploaded from a home in the 1900 block of Northeast Sams Loop, said OSP Capt. Bill Fugate.

OSP detectives began an investigation and determined Jeremy Lucas Swinney lived at that home, Fugate said. Swinney was contacted and later admitted downloading and trading images and videos of children being sexually abused, the captain said, adding that detectives recovered 298 child pornography photos and videos from Swinney’s cellphone.

Swinney was interviewed and arrested Wednesday at his probation officer’s office on several counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse and dozens more of possessing material depicting sexually explicit conduct of a child. He was booked into the Deschutes County Jail, where he remained held late Thursday on $750,000 bail on the charges, but held without bail on a probation violation charge.

Detectives said the lengthy investigation was needed to determine who had uploaded the image, as several people lived at the address. Fugate said more information will be released in the ongoing investigation as it becomes available.

More information about the Oregon Department of Justice Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force at http://www.doj.state.or.us/oricac/index.html.