New Hampshire Man Arrested On Multiple Child Pornography Charges

CONCORD, NH — A government employee living in New Hampshire has been arrested on child pornography charges — with investigators anticipating more charges after a forensic analysis of the digital evidence seized during the investigation is complete.

Ricardo Vera, 36, of Butternut Road in Grantham was arrested Thursday on five felony counts of possession of child sexual abuse images.

The case started in January 2020 after Discord, a voice, video, and text communication service, reported a .gif file of a child sexual abuse image on its servers and provided a cyber tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

A few months later, the email account that posted the photo was connected to an internet protocol address in Grantham and the case was sent to the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for investigation.

A Cheshire County Sheriff's Department lieutenant began working the case and requested a federal subpoena through Homeland Security Investigations for records related to the .gif and IP address. The file, according to an affidavit, included 122 images into one image.

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In March 2020, Comcast revealed the email account belonging to someone at Vera's home.

The investigator began "open-source checks" on household members and found Vera was employed at the Engineer Research and Development Center, which is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as a research physical scientist for about three and half years. He also worked for more than seven years for a casino operation in New Jersey (2007 to 2014) and worked as a graduate student researcher at the University of New Hampshire between 2014 and 2016. Previously, he also worked for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in Austin, Texas in 2017.

Police spent many months investigating the case and went to Grantham with local and state police to serve Vera with a search warrant Thursday.

Vera answered the door when police knocked and agreed to speak to them if they would meet him in the garage, an affidavit stated. When police went to the garage to meet with him, another trooper accused Vera of taking control of a laptop from his home and attempting to flee out a back door, the report said.

"(The) trooper yelled at Vera to stop and come to the door," the affidavit said. "Vera froze and stopped what he was doing."

Vera was told he was not under arrest but there was a warrant for his laptop and cellphone. He gave the cellphone when requested but "got defensive" when he was asked to provide a password and fingerprint to unlock the phone, the report said. Later, he gave an investigator the passwords and agreed to speak with an investigator at Grantham police headquarters, the affidavit stated.

At the police station, Vera admitted to viewing child pornography since the age of 12 and was using TikTok, SnapChat, Instagram, and Omegele to communicate with others and also speak with and view pictures of underage models and girls, according to an affidavit. He used an online folder app to hide all his applications, the affidavit said. Vera was accused of admitting to interacting with at least three underage girls online. While on a work trip to Mississippi, he traveled to Alabama to visit one of the girls, who was 16, the report said. The other girl, who was 12, lived in Florida and nearby to a location he visited regularly for work. He denied, however, visiting with that girl, the report said. The third underage girl lived in Canada, the investigator said.

"Vera used to be riddled with guilt, at first," the investigator said. "But lately, he has pushed the guilt aside for sexual gratification. (He) became very defensive, angry, and upset when confronted with infant/toddler (images and information)."

When asked if he had ever touched children in an inappropriate manner when he was around them, Vera said he had not and would stop, "count to 20," and leave whenever he had "urges." Vera also admitted to taking "voyeur pictures" of children, the report stated.

Vera told investigators he was banned from Discord about a year ago but admitted to being a "hoarder" of images and videos that were saved in case online operations were shut down, the affidavit said.

Investigators, concerned about possible interactions Vera may have had with children, are asking anyone who knows him with children to assist state police.

"The investigation into Mr. Vera's contact with children is ongoing and investigators are receiving assistance from local police departments as well as other state and federal agencies," Det. Sgt. Michael McLaughlin of Troop C said. "We are asking parents whose children may have been in the care of Mr. Vera, or who have been otherwise exposed to Mr. Vera to speak with their children about any experiences that they may have had with him. We are also asking parents to report any odd or suspicious behaviors that they may have observed regarding Mr. Vera."

Vera was arraigned on Friday and held on preventative detention.

If parents have concerns that their child may have been victimized or if they believe that they may have some useful information regarding this investigation, contact Det. Sgt. McLaughlin at 603-419-0130 or Michael.McLaughlin@dos.nh.gov or Det. William Neilsen at 603-931-0854 or William.Neilsen@dos.nh.gov.

Editor's note: This post was derived from information supplied by the New Hampshire State Police and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the removal request process for New Hampshire Patch police reports.

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