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Gravette Man Arrested In Child Porn Case

A Gravette man is in jail after authorities say they found child pornography on his home computer. James Case, 43, of Gravette, was arrested in a child pornogra...

A Gravette man is in jail after authorities say they found child pornography on his home computer.

James Case, 43, of Gravette, was arrested in a child pornography case on June 13, after detectives in the Cyber Crimes Division of the Benton County Sheriff's Office began an investigation into the sharing of child porn, court documents state.

Investigators located Case after contacting Cox Communication and getting an address for a customer's account they had found to be downloading child porn, according to court documents.

An investigator interviewed Case and asked if he had been downloading child porn. Case said he had searched for child porn before because he was "curious about it." When the investigator asked how many videos or images of child porn Case had downloaded, Case said, "It's no telling," court documents state.

The investigator told him that their case had revealed more than 1800 images had been downloaded. He asked Case if that was close to how many Case had downloaded, and Case said, "Probably, I didn't download, I just looked at them," according to court documents.

After the interview, another investigator found a graphic image of a young girl on James' cell phone, court documents state.

Barbara Weeks, a neighbor, said she's surprised by what happened. She said Case lived with his family and had some problems.

"We didn't have any idea, because we've known this boy since he went to school as a real young boy," she said. "He's a grown man. Yes, he's mentally challenged, but he's still always been quite obedient."

Corporal Greg Stevenson worked on the investigation. He said the Cyber Crimes Division uses a computer program to find child pornography suspects. The program is able to go out and find what authorities refer to as known child pornography, Stevenson said.

Any picture that is uploaded to the internet is given a hash information number.

"These computers we have that search the internet to see who exactly is trying to share child pornography looks for these particular hash numbers," Stevenson said.

Once the computer sees the number, Stevenson said it's able to capture the IP address that is being used by that computer.

"We are then able to send out subpoenas to providers, such as Cox Communications and AT&T, to get the user information," he said.

From there, detectives are able to find out where the suspect lives and will then monitor the residence.

"With that kind of information we can then develop enough probable cause to obtain a search warrant to go inside that residence, apartment building or whatever the case may be," Stevenson said.

Case was booked into the Benton County Detention Center and is being held on a $50,000 bond.

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