Le Grand man arrested in child porn case
A three-month investigation ended Friday with a 20-year-old Le Grand man behind bars, accused of downloading child pornography on his smartphone, the Merced Police Department reported.
Benny J. Perez IV was booked into the Merced County jail on suspicion of accessing and possessing child pornography, police said in a news release.
“He was visiting (websites) and downloading illegal images,” Sgt. Curt Gorman told the Sun-Star.
Detectives received a tip in November last year that a man in Le Grand was accessing child pornography. Gorman said he did not want to comment on the nature of the tip or who made it to protect the investigation.
Detective Allen Adrian, the department’s high-tech crimes investigator, traced the illegal downloads to a home in the 3700 block of East Sante Fe in Le Grand. Officers searched the home Friday and interviewed Perez.
“Perez admitted to accessing and viewing the child pornography from his smartphone and said that he had erased it after viewing,” police said in the statement. “MPD hi-tech crimes detectives were able to check his phone and found the child pornography that Perez had been viewing.”
Perez remained in custody Friday afternoon with bail set at $25,000, according to booking records.
Anyone with information on this case is urged to call Detective Adrian at 209-385-4731 or MPD Dispatch at 209-385-6905.
This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Le Grand man arrested in child porn case."