A Washington Corrections Center officer was arrested after Mason County deputies reportedly found child sex abuse videos on his phone.
MASON COUNTY, Wash. — A Washington State Department of Corrections officer has been arrested after police said they found videos of child sex abuse on his phone.
The 42-year-old Mason County man, who is an officer at the Washington Corrections Center in Mason County, was arrested Tuesday and is expected to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.
The officer has not been charged yet.
The Department of Corrections said it is cooperating with the investigation. The officer is in custody, and if he bails out of jail, the department said he would be placed on home assignment while awaiting prosecution.
The Mason County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation began April 2 when the Robbinsdale Police Department in Minnesota requested help with a case involving child sexual abuse material.
As part of the Minnesota investigation, investigators identified the user of a group on the messaging app Telegram who sent a photo of himself as well as explicit photos of children in August and September 2024.
Mason County deputies compared the picture to the correction officer’s Washington State Department of Licensing photo and said it was a match.
On Tuesday, deputies interviewed the corrections officer. He said he used Telegram but denied posting child sexual abuse material, claiming he “must have been hacked.”
Deputies got a search warrant for the officer’s home and electronic devices. The corrections officer gave deputies the code to his phone, and the sheriff’s office said they found hundreds of files on it, including explicit videos depicting child sexual abuse.
The man was arrested and booked into the Mason County Jail on suspicion of two counts of first-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and four counts of dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
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