‘Cybertips’ lead to raid on La Pine man’s home, arrest on child pornography, meth possession charges

(Update: Adding suspect's name, charges and arraignment)

La PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) – Several tips earlier this year from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to a raid Tuesday on a 59-year-old La Pine man’s home and his arrest on charges of possessing child pornography and methamphetamine, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

On Feb. 22, the sheriff’s office received multiple “cybertips” from NCMEC, and detectives learned a cloud-based storage account located in the county was uploading child sexual abuse material, Sergeant Jason Wall said Tuesday.

Detectives with the sheriff’s office Internet Crimes Against Children unit began an investigation and determined the La Pine man, Martin Douglas Adler, owned the cloud-based storage account, Wall said.

Sheriff’s detectives with the ICAC, Street Crimes and Digital Forensics unit, along with Oregon State Police ICAS detectives, served a search warrant Tuesday at Adler's home in the 50000 block of Center Drive in La Pine.

“Several digital devices were seized from the residence,” Wall said in a news release. “A felony amount of methamphetamine was located during the search warrant and was seized as well.”

Adler was arrested, taken to the county jail in Bend and booked on eight counts each of first- and second-degree encouraging child sex abuse, as well as felony unlawful possession of methamphetamine.

Adler was arraigned Wednesday on the district attorney's initial 21-count charging document, all Class B and C felonies - 20 of encouraging child sex abuse and one for meth possession. Originally held without bail pending arraignment, he remained held after court on $75,000 bail, jail records showed. He is due to appear in court again next Wednesday for arraignment on an expected formal indictment.

The charges allege the viewing of "sexually explicit conduct involving a child" on or about Tuesday of this week, Feb. 12-25 of this year and Dec. 1, 2023.

Wall said more search warrants will be sought for analysis of the seized digital devices, which could result in additional charges being filed in the future.