Eagle River man arraigned on child pornography charges

July 11, 2010

APD Det. Glen Klinkhart says investigators are trying to match items in the images to items found in Nichol's house. (Jonathan Hartford/KTUU-DT)

by Christine Kim
Saturday, July 10, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Detectives are continuing to investigate 25-year-old Johnathan Nichol of Eagle River, who is charged with possessing child pornography, and say there may be additional charges against him.

The Anchorage Police Department says it took about two weeks from first learning about Nichol's images to putting him in jail. It all started with a tip: a post on a community forum for expectant mothers that police believe was a cry for help.

A post by one user asked for advice after finding child pornography on her husband's computer.

"Virtually all the other people on the site said, ‘Call the police, call the police, call the police,'" said APD Det. Glen Klinkhart.

"This is a really good example of how somebody somewhere else in the country saw something, reported it to the Cyber Tip Line and they were able to forward it to us -- and we were able to act on it," Klinkhart said.

Nichol is charged with one count of possessing child pornography. According to court documents, a search revealed several images -- including one of an infant girl who may be related to Nichol.

"We look for clues such as: is the child on a bed, on a sofa, on a couch?" Klinkhart said. "In this particular case, we did find one photograph that had a very distinct-looking blanket -- we did find a blanket very much like that, and of course part of our job is to try and match that up to see if indeed this is the same blanket, and this is the same person,"

Klinkhart says there will be a thorough investigation of any electronics belonging to Nichol to determine if there are more images, if they're of local victims and whether they were distributed.

Nichol's bail is set at $30,000. A pre-indictment hearing is set for Tuesday.

Contact Christine Kim at ckim@ktuu.com

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