A yearlong probe by Danish authorities investigating parents swapping online images of their children being sexually abused has landed ten Orange County, California men under federal indictment.
Three were arrested May 28 with two others expected to be picked up by week's end and five more pleading guilty earlier to federal child porn charges, according to the Los Angeles Times.
One of the three arrested, Bryce Klepinger, was fingered as a member of a group distributing and collecting such images on the Internet, according to the Times, which cited federal investigators. Immigration and customs authorities seized 75 images from two computers at Klepinger's home during a March 2002 raid, the paper added.
A Stanton man, Kevin Hunt, was indicted as well, with investigators in this case believing he was behind a Website featuring child porn. The Times said the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children caught a tip about the Website and tipped off the FBI, which took it from there. Another watchdog group, Save the Childen, was said to have spotted some of the images online in 2001 and tipped off Danish police, resulting in a couple's arrest when their nine-year-old daughter was identified in one photo, the paper added.
The other indictments involve Donald C. Armbruster of Modjeska Canyon, who's accused of ordering a child porn video from an undercover law enforcement Website, according to the Times; Richard D. Lewis of Newport Beach; Robert W. Kennedy of Anaheim; and, Robert E. Rountree of Orange. Lewis's home was also reaided, with 115 seized images said to have been downloaded from the Net, the paper continued, while Kennedy was said to have had 13 CD-ROMs with almost 200 child porn images drawn from the Net, and Rountree was said to have had 32 images and 54 films he got from an online child porn swap program.
Armbruster, Rountree, Hunt, and Klepinger are due for June 2 arraignment, with arrest warrants due to be exercised on Lewis and Kennedy after they are released from a hospital, the Times said.
