Gustafson re-arrested on abuse, child porn charges

Over a month after his initial arrest on sex abuse charges, Acrovision Sports Center founder and co-owner Richard Gustafson was re-arrested Friday on 126 new counts of encouraging child sex abuse, as well as a new first-degree sex abuse charge and one count of drug possession, police said.

“These additional charges are the result of the continuing investigation of the original incident,” said police Capt. Ken Stenkamp.

Gustafson was lodged in the Deschutes County Jail on $1.34 million bail. Police said the new charges, apparently involving child pornography, involve a 9-year-old girl.

Gustafson originally was arrested in early January, accused of abusing two girls, ages 8 and 9, during a New Year’s Eve sleepover party. Police asked then to hear from any other possible victims or witnesses.

Days later, the charges were expanded to nine counts of first-degree sex abuse involving four victims between 8 and 10 years of age.

Prosecutors said the charges stemmed from three sleepovers Gustafson held at the business, including two earlier ones, in the spring of 2012 and last Halloween. They said he invited a few select students to a loft during the sleepovers and would sleep next to the girls, during which the abuse allegedly occurred.

In mid-January, at a defense lawyer’s request, a judge lowered Gustafson’s bail from $300,000 to $200,000 and he was released from jail. He was under house arrest and ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device and follow other restrictions.

The new charges, Stenkjamp said, include 122 counts of second-degree encouraging child sex abuse, and four first-degree counts.

Encouraging child sex abuse in the second degree, a Class C felony, involves possessing or viewing visual recordings of, or observing sexually explicit conduct involving a child.

First-degree charges, a Class B felony, involve possessing or viewing such visual recordings with the intent to “disseminate, exchange, display or sell” them.

The investigation is still ongoing at this time, Stenkamp said. Bend police asked anyone with information regarding the investigation to contact Detective Tom Russell at (541) 322-2986 or Deschutes County dispatchers at (541) 693-6911.