Editor’s note: The Courier-Herald reported in December 2020 that two locals, Aaron Myers and Brad Allan Norgate, were arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography, otherwise known as child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Due to the pandemic, we failed to timely follow these cases. Here is where these cases stand.
An Enumclaw School District psychologist and a Black Diamond resident were arrested in December 2020 on suspicion of possessing child pornography.
The former, Aaron Myers, who worked at the Black Diamond Elementary School, was arrested Dec. 3; the latter was Brad Allan Norgate, who was arrested Dec. 7 by Black Diamond police.
At the time of the Courier-Herald’s first report, Myers had not been officially charged. He was charged with four counts of possession on Feb. 17, 2021, and pled not guilty at his March 2, 2021 arraignment.
It’s unclear in court documents how law enforcement learned Myers was allegedly downloading child pornography, also known as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) because the word “pornography” implies consent.
Allegedly, Myers first said he downloaded the material through Shareaza, a “peer-to-peer file sharing program”, by mistake. However, he eventually admitted that he purposefully download the images and videos.
Court documents allege Myers had nearly 2,600 photos and 230 videos in his possession; most appeared to be young boys, and several involved “infants and/or toddlers”.
Myers’ trial is currently scheduled for Jan. 17, 2023.
NORGATE PLEADS GUILTY
Norgate was officially charged with two counts of CSAM possession on Dec. 9, 2020.
He pled not guilty during his Dec. 17 arraignment, but changed his plea to guilty on July 7, 2022 to one charge of CSAM possession and one charge of attempted viewing of CSAM in the second degree. He was officially sentenced Sept. 30, 2022 to three months incarceration, two years unsupervised probation, and $1,000 in fines.
According to court documents, Black Diamond police were alerted by Google through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone using a computer in the city stored files onto a Google drive. The two alerts noted 9 images were uploaded.
The Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the alerts led police to Norgate’s physical address, where he was arrested.
Norgate told police he used the website 4chan to view CSAM, but because the files would disappear after a short time, he saved some on his Google drive.
He also said he saved about a dozen files, but documents show that “hundreds” of photographs were found on his computers; those described by police were of younger children, around 10 years old, of both sexes.
