Ypsilanti Township man charged in child pornography case; police trying to identify children in photos
An Ypsilanti Township man is facing criminal charges after Washtenaw County sheriff's deputies say they found thousands of images of child pornography on his BlackBerry and its memory cards.
Many of the photographs depict girls as young as 5 and 6 in various sexual positions, Sheriff's Det. Kevin Parviz said.
Brian E. Demarest, 41, who lives on Munger Road, was arraigned today on four counts of using a computer to commit a felony and two counts each of distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
Brian E. Demarest
Demarest, who has children and works as a handyman in a mobile home community, was arraigned at the Washtenaw County Jail. He's being held on $500,000 cash bond.
Some of the photos appear to be homemade - including close-ups of at least one adult having sex with children - and may have been taken by Demarest, Parviz said. Detectives are working to identify children in the photographs and are using the BlackBerry and other methods to retrace Demarest's activity.
Demarest was arrested and the Blackberry - a smartphone that includes Internet access - was seized after a search warrant was executed at his home Thursday. He is not cooperating with the investigation, Parviz said.
"We need to talk to every single person this guy has come across lately," Parviz said.
The investigation began after someone who saw at least one of the images tipped off deputies, Parviz said.
Parviz is encouraging parents in the area to talk to their children about the situation.
"Parents have to take the initiative," he said.
In all, investigators recovered more than 3,400 images of pornography, the majority child pornography, Parviz said. Deputies also found hundreds of pornographic videos, Parviz said.
Investigators continue to follow up on leads in the case, and it's possible more charges will be filed, Parviz said.
Deputies don't believe Demarest has a criminal record.
It's unclear whether Demarest has an attorney, and attempts to get in contact with his family members this evening were unsuccessful.
Sonny Gonzales, who lives in the neighborhood, said Demarest has twice worked on his mobile home.
Gonzales has already talked to his 17-year-old daughter about the situation and said he was relieved to hear she was not harmed. He said he was surprised at the allegations.
"How can you tell?" he asked. "You can't look at somebody and say, 'Oh yeh, this guy's doing this.' It's very disgusting."
Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Tom Boivin at 734-973-4625 or Parviz at 734-484-6740.
Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at leehiggins@annarbor.com or 734-623-2527.
Comments
Noah
Wed, Aug 4, 2010 : 1:02 p.m.
:)Killing innocent people was a big mistake getting ride of the death penalty was a bigger mistake. My brother was a murder he never really repented or payed for his crimes since he never got caught for most of them. He openly bragged to friends about rapping a 14 year old girl and jumping on grey hound bus. After trying to buy a 12 year old with a pound of marijuana he got shot in the back by her dad living he got put in jail served 2 years For marijuana released on good behaver and O.D on Oxies Oh he was never charged for his murders 14 of them In FL just affiliated with 6 of them the guys that dropped the bodies got life sentences since no one talked He got 12 years for those A death Sentence and better law enforcement would of stopped him from doing all the missed up stuff i'm not writing Or cutting his eyes out and giving them to a blind person.
Basic Bob
Mon, Nov 2, 2009 : 10 a.m.
Geek, I applaud Ms. Judge on her efforts. But what she is trying to address is not computer security. It is computer crime. If I can make an analogy, one is locking the car door, the other is driving the getaway car. I also agree that the police need to be more skilled than the criminals. I can only imagine what they can find on person's computer. Hope this clarifies my earlier post.
Geek
Mon, Nov 2, 2009 : 7:43 a.m.
Bob, your statement could not be far from the truth. Based on what you have said, an IT person and only an IT person should be tracing a bomb threat email, for instance. Local police departments have highly trained cops, who happen to be well versed in network security. They not only trace cyber criminal, but since they are cops, they can execute search warrants to locate them something a civilian IT cant do. What Commissioner Judge is doing is extremely valuable and admirable. She wants to have a local taskforce, which would combine sporadic computer forensics laboratories.
Basic Bob
Sun, Nov 1, 2009 : 2:33 p.m.
Ms. Judge, Cyber Security refers to protecting computers and information from hackers, thieves, and other computer scam artists. This is an IT function. To include forensic investigations into child pornography and sex offenses is a bit of a stretch. These situations should remain in the hands of detectives, who are trained and committed to enforcing these laws.
grimdaddy1
Sun, Nov 1, 2009 : 10:24 a.m.
they rapists get out to make room for drug offeners and drunk drivers, lets keep locking up crackheads for life and giving these pedos who will never change parole after parole
Awakened
Sun, Nov 1, 2009 : 7:12 a.m.
If you check the sex offender lists you will find that most of these guys are getting little or no time before being paroled becasue they are not "violent"offneders. Even more scary they are releasing more and more violent sex offenders as the state reduces prison space.
Kristin Judge
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 7:09 p.m.
This week the Sheriff's office, Pittsfield Township Public Safety, WISD, Saline Schools and I brought to town two national experts on Cyber Security. I am hoping my partners will work with me to create a Washtenaw Area Cyber Security Task Force. The internet is here to stay, and as a Washtenaw County Commissioner, I would like to help raise awareness of the opportunities and dangers the internet brings. We will have the national experts' speeches online for anyone to see soon. Keep checking the Sheriff's page on EWashtenaw.org. For more information, anyone can sign up for my monthly E-newsletter by sending me an email at judgek@ewashtenaw.org.
gibby76
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 1:38 p.m.
um why punish the kodiak bears with this scum? that is to say they can catch them. here's food for thought, much of these problems is because Mental Health has been slid into oblivion from the 80s till now. never had these issues so bad before then...
gibby76
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 1:35 p.m.
um not sure this should have been in the paper then, give any one this guy had contact with a warning. what makes investigations like this so hard :/
Bear
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 12:34 p.m.
Arieswoman, Michigan is the first english speaking government in the world to abolish the death penalty, partly because of the hanging of an innocent man. Patrick Fitzgerald was hung in 1837 in nearby Windsor, Ontario for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl. Another person later confessed to the crime. Michigan's 1846 constitution incorporated a ban on capital punishment. You should do some research into the subject and you might just change your mind. But if you are such a fan of the death penalty, perhaps you should move to Texas, where governor Perry is trying to sweep the execution of a likely innocent man under the rug. Since 1900 there have been 416 known cases of innocent persons on death row, with 23 executed. More recently 28 death row inmates around the country were freed after DNA evidence proved their innocence. Chicago law students were instrumental in saving one man just two days before he was to be executed. He was the eleventh person released from Illinois death row since 1977. Michigan DOESN'T need the death penalty, thank you.
djm12652
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 11:02 a.m.
Angela, I've been to the Kodiaks...much too nice for the likes of them...unless we leave them without anything remotely resembling a weapon and let the big Kodiak Bears feast on them...
Angela
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 9:46 a.m.
@ djm: I couldn't agree with you more. I vote for the Kodiak islands in Alaska. -It seems that more and more of these sickos are being caught, which is good; however, people like this are everywhere. It's a sad day in society when children cannot play in the park, walk home from school, be at school (look up the principal of Howe military school) without the adults in their life being paranoid. -I say (coming from a "bleeding heart") that these people should have their eyes cut out on first offense. Second offense, they die by having their you know what cut off.
jns131
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 9 a.m.
Every single day, I am reading about more and more children being sexually abused, killed and dumped for dead. Neveah in Monroe. That poor girl in Florida found in a landfill. The list goes on. These people need the death penalty. Or worse......
ml
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 8:26 a.m.
title should say identify instead of indentity, correct?
Craig Lounsbury
Sat, Oct 31, 2009 : 7:15 a.m.
I can't comprehend how people like that think. I do know there appears to be no cure. So short of execution (I am not a proponent)the solution is to lock them up and throw away the key. Its the "throw away the key" part that society seems to struggle with. Too often people like that are cut loose in 10-20 years.
Go Blue 123
Fri, Oct 30, 2009 : 9:34 p.m.
Horrific. Full stop.