Rexburg man arrested after police reportedly find child pornography
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REXBURG — A 29-year-old man was arrested in Rexburg after police say he downloaded child pornography, and researched if he would get in trouble for it.
Tyler Waite is charged with one count of willfully possessing or accessing child sexually exploitative material.
Court documents say on July 10, 2024, Madison County Sheriff’s detectives were investigating a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, that had been reported to them from Discord, a voice, video and text communication service.
The report stated that a Discord user had uploaded a file of “apparent child pornography.”
Police reports say the image showed a child between 10 and 12 years old being raped by an adult man.
Detectives traced the IP address associated with the file to an apartment complex in Rexburg. From there, they identified the user.
On Nov. 13, detectives served a search warrant at Waite’s home, where they seized multiple devices. Waite declined to speak with investigators at that time.
Detectives searched Waite’s phone, where they reportedly found searches for “id (sic) discord replrts (sic) you for csam are you going to jail?”, “monimum (sic) inprisonment (sic) for csam in idaho” and images of the Idaho ICAC Task Force, Discord account suspension, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
On Aug. 27, detectives and deputies arrested Waite, and he was booked into the Madison County Jail on a $30,000 bond. The bond was later reduced to $5,000.
Waite is expected to appear for a district court arraignment on Sept. 15. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Though Waite has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.