Plymouth child porn charges have Door County connection

Green Bay Press-Gazette
October 06, 2014

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/local/door-county/news/2014/10/06/plymouth-child-porn-charges-door-county-connection/16830731/

Calvin Gideon

A Plymouth man charged with 15 counts of felony possession of child pornography, stored flash drives with child pornography in a cabin near Sturgeon Bay.

Calvin D. Gideon, W6408 Aurora Road, faces 225 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.

The Door County Sheriff’s Department assisted officers with their search of the cabin, Sheriff Terry Vogel said.

Vogel called it “routine” to help another agency when going into another’s jurisdiction.

The deputies “stood by” and made sure the residence was secured. Vogel stressed it was not Door County’s investigation.

According to the criminal complaint:

A special deputy U.S. marshal began an investigation into child pornography in July and discovered child pornography files that were downloaded to an Internet address in Plymouth.

A search warrant was carried out at Gideon’s Plymouth home on Sept. 30 by the detective, the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Office and the Milwaukee FBI Child Exploitation Task Force.

When talking to authorities, Gideon denied having child pornography, calling it “disgusting,” and said he was a youth pastor at St. John the Baptist Church in Plymouth who had recently lost his job because of drinking.

When presented with evidence that had been collected by the detective from the U.S. Marshal’s Service, he admitted having downloaded child pornography for the last 10 years.

He also told authorities he kept some of it on flash drives in a cabin in Sturgeon Bay. Although he said he has taken church-related trips to the Philippines, Jamaica, Pittsburgh, New Jersey and other places, he denied any sexual contact with juveniles.

Authorities worked with the Door County Sheriff’s Department to search the Sturgeon Bay cabin and found two laptop computers, multiple flash drives and related electronic storage devices.

The files contained both photos and video of children as young as 4 engaged in graphic sexual activity.

Samantha Hernandez contributed to this report.