State corrections officer had at least 3 child porn images on computer, documents allege
OLYMPIA -- A state corrections officer arrested for possessing child pornography had at least three illegal images on his personal computer, according to court documents released Wednesday.
The suspect, 38-year-old Michael Boone, is also a reserve police officer in Tenino.
A Thurston County judge set bail at $5,000 for Boone and ordered him to not have contact with minors, even his own children, while awaiting trial.
According to court documents, Boone admitted to receiving images of underage girls in the past – but instead of reporting the images, he told detectives he would simply delete the files.
“The images he was found with are known to law enforcement throughout the nation to be identified as child pornography,” Washington State Patrol detective James Mjor said.
Detectives said Boone’s trouble began when Microsoft red-flagged illicit images uploaded to his online cloud storage.
“It triggered some bells and whistles at Microsoft. Microsoft did the right thing by alerting the authorities,” said Mjor.
Police arrested Boone at his job Tuesday. They also seized Boone’s personal computers and other devices after searching his Olympia home for evidence.
The Washington State Patrol Missing and Exploited Children’s Task Force is leading the investigation against Boone.
The task force stays busy with only a handful of officers looking into thousands of tips spanning the state.
“This is pretty much an epidemic,” Washington State Patrol Sgt. Carlos Rodriguez, a member of the task force, said recently.
Last week, the task force arrested a man for allegedly swapping flagged images with undercover officers.
Rodriquez said he needs more investigators on the payroll.
“If you gave me 50 people I could work these cases over and over and still have work to do,” he said.
Washington state reportedly ranks as one of the highest in the nation for people trading in online child pornography.
State Rep. David Sawyer, D-Lakewood, sponsored new legislation that would put more police working on child porn cases.
“We have a $38 billion (state) budget and I think asking for $7 million to rescue children is not unreasonable,” he said.
The city of Tenino did not returned repeated calls for comment on the case.
Boone’s other employer, the Washington State Department of Corrections, said he was immediately placed on administrative leave.