I.F. man pleads not guilty to charges alleging he distributed child porn
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IDAHO FALLS — A 60-year-old man who police said had a large amount of child pornography has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.
Stanley G. Gallegos was arrested in March after federal agents searched his home and seized a variety of digital devices.
On Tuesday, Gallegos appeared before District Judge Dane Watkins Jr. and pleaded not guilty to the five felony charges he faces: four counts of possession of child pornography and one count of distributing child pornography.
Late last month, Gallegos waived his preliminary hearing, which is used to determine whether there is enough evidence to require a trial.
According to police reports, investigators discovered a massive amount of child pornography on several multi-terabyte hard drives. Investigators said there was so much pornography, it would take thousands of hours to catalog all of the photos and videos.
Gallegos, of Idaho Falls, initially denied to investigators that he was distributing child pornography, according to court documents.
The investigation into Gallegos began in Moscow, Idaho. Detective Eric Kjorness with the Moscow Police Department and a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force downloaded 112 files containing child pornography from a single IP address through a torrent. That address was later discovered to be associated with a Cable One account registered to Gallegos.
This led to a search warrant of Gallegos’ home by the ICAC task force. Upon searching the house, the task force discovered what they describe as a “sophisticated computer system that was all linked to one main server,” according to court documents.
It will likely take over a year just to analyze and complete a report documenting all the images and videos that were located in Gallegos’ home.
Agents seized several hard drives, jump drives, laptop computers, iPads, tablets, and smartphones, according to court records.
Because of the enormous size of file storage and the sophisticated nature of Gallegos’ computer system, investigators say it was impossible to review all of it on site. Forensic examiners estimated it would likely take over a year just to analyze and complete a report documenting all the images and videos that were located in Gallegos’ home.
Agents who searched Gallegos’ home downloaded two of what investigators said is potentially thousands of folders. Those two folders contained 278 videos and 3,052 photos, all containing explicit material of children. Investigators called the images and videos “extremely graphic in nature.”
The estimated age range of children in the videos ranges from a couple months to 14 years old. Many of the videos were children engaging is sexual acts with other children, often with the assistance of an adult. Other videos involved adults and children.
In Gallegos’ basement, where his computer equipment was stored, investigators also seized 193 homemade DVDs, though Gallegos is not believed to have produced the content. A random review of 10 of those DVDs showed that nine contained child pornography.
Gallegos is due back in court April 12 for a preliminary hearing.