JEFFERSON CO., Pa. (EYT) – Two Jefferson County men are facing multiple felony charges after they were discovered in possession of child pornography.
Court documents indicate 29-year-old Drue J. Crooks, of Sykesville, and 25-year-old Steffan Dolby, of Reynoldsville, were arraigned in front of Magisterial District Judge David B. Inzana on Wednesday, January 5, 2022.
Crooks faces the following charges:
– Child Pornography, Felony 2 (28 counts)
– Criminal Use Of Communication Facility, Felony 3
– Disseminate Photo/Film of Child Sex Acts, Felony 3 (28 counts)
Dolby faces the following charges:
– Child Pornography, Felony 2 (60 counts)
– Disseminate Photo/Film of Child Sex Acts, Felony 2 (20 counts)
– Criminal Use Of Communication Facility, Felony 3
– Child Pornography, Felony 3 (three counts)
– Disseminate Photo/Film of Child Sex Acts, Felony 3 (three counts)
Both defendants remain free on $20,000.00 unsecured bail each.
Case Against Crooks
According to a criminal complaint, on April 29, 2020, the Pennsylvania State Police Troop I Computer Crime Unit initiated an investigation after being contacted by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) organization in relation to a CyberTipline report generated by Google.
The complaint indicates Google advised that two images of child pornography were uploaded to the Google Gmail infrastructure on April 1, 2020, and provided account information that the images were uploaded from a user identified as Drue Crooks. Google also provided the IP address used to upload the images.
The IP address was then searched and found to be owned by Comcast Cable and an administrative subpoena was issued to determine the subscriber information.
According to the complaint, information from Comcast indicated the IP address was assigned to Drue Crooks.
Police then received another tip from ICAC regarding two images of child pornography uploaded to the Verizon Cloud on November 30, 2020, and January 4, 2021. The images were reportedly uploaded to an account associated with the same phone number listed for Crooks and provided in his Comcast subscriber information.
A search warrant was then executed on Crooks’s residence in Stump Creek, Henderson Township, Jefferson County. It was found that Crooks did not live at the address any longer, but had lived there until June or July of 2020. Crooks was later interviewed at his new residence.
According to the complaint, during the interview, Crooks admitted he did search for adult pornography regularly, and while searching, the links he would click on would lead him to adult pornography but also sometimes to child pornography. He told police he never searched for child pornography on purpose. He also reportedly confirmed his phone number was the same number associated with the Comcast account at the Verizon report.
A search warrant was then served on Google for Crooks’s Gmail account. During a search of the email, police reportedly found emails with attachments of images and videos of child pornography. A total of 20 images and videos of child pornography and six images or videos of child pornography that involved indecent contact were discovered, the complaint states.
Police also served a search warrant on Crooks’ Verizon Cloud account, but the complaint indicates no additional child pornography was found on the account.
Crooks is scheduled to stand for a preliminary hearing on the charges at 9:30 a.m. on January 25, 2022, with Judge Inzana presiding.
Case Against Dolby
According to a criminal complaint, on June 23, 2021, the Pennsylvania State Police Troop I Computer Crime Unit initiated an investigation after being contacted by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) organization in relation to a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) generated by Dropbox.
NCMEC received a tip from Dropbox on June 4, 2021, after Dropbox became aware of reported material and related that a video of child pornography was uploaded to the Dropbox infrastructure. The video was uploaded on June 4, 2021, and Dropbox provided the email and IP address of the user who uploaded the video.
The complaint indicates the associated IP address was found to be owned by Comcast Communications and an administrative subpoena was issued to determine the subscriber information.
According to the complaint, information from Comcast indicated the IP address was a known woman living in Reynoldsville.
Between July 29, 2021, and October 18, 2021, police received ten additional CyberTips from NCMEC that had been received from Dropbox and Imgur about additional images and videos of child pornography being uploaded, all of which came back to the same IP address as the initial tip.
A search warrant was then executed on the Reynoldsville residence.
According to the complaint, during the service of the warrant, police interviewed Steffan Dolby and he admitted to ownership of the email address associated with the child pornography uploads, as well as other email addresses associated with the uploading of child pornography to the internet. Dolby reportedly admitted he was interested in child pornography and uploaded it to Dropbox to view.
Dolby’s cell phones and tablet were subsequently seized and further examined. Police found a total of 40 additional images and videos of child pornography involving indecent contact, according to the complaint.
The complaint notes that as Dolby’s devices were synced with his Apple ID and had items stored on his iCloud account, police then served a warrant on Apple to determine any child pornography on Dolby’s iCloud. A review of the contents found an additional ten videos of child pornography involving indecent contact.
According to the complaint, a total of 60 images or videos of child pornography involving indecent contact and three images or videos of child pornography involving nudity were found in Dolby’s possession. Of those, police found 20 images or videos of child pornography involving indecent contact and three involving nudity were transferred to Dropbox, Imgur, and iCloud.
Dolby is scheduled to stand for a preliminary hearing on the charges at 9:45 a.m. on January 25, 2022, with Judge Inzana presiding.
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