New Mexico AG tip leads to Farmington man's arrest for child pornography
The man was released from the county jail
- Dwayne Clark Jr., 42, is accused of four counts of distribution of child pornography and a fourth-degree felony count of possession of child pornography.
- The defendant did not have legal representation on the morning of Nov. 11.
- His preliminary hearing is set for the morning of Nov. 14 in Aztec Magistrate Court.
FARMINGTON — A Farmington man allegedly admitted to law enforcement that he downloaded and shared child pornography, and court documents indicate he blamed being "distracted" by video games for not deleting the files from his hard drive.
He was arrested after a tip from the New Mexico Attorney General's Office led detectives to investigate and later serve a search warrant on his home.
Dwayne Clark Jr., 42, is accused of distributing and possessing child pornography, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. He faces four third-degree felony counts of distribution of child pornography and a fourth-degree felony count of possession of child pornography, according to court records.
The defendant did not have legal representation on the morning of Nov. 11.
Outreach from the AG
The investigation by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office was launched on Oct. 30 after a special agent with the New Mexico Attorney General's Office spoke to a detective.
The agent obtained a download from an IP address that was assigned to a subscriber in the Farmington area. The download was made using the BitTorrent file sharing program.
The detective reviewed three of the files from the download. They depicted child pornography, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
The detective later received subscriber information which listed Clark as the account holder, and it included his Farmington address.
The Sheriff's Office was contacted twice before a search warrant was executed on Clark's residence. The agent contacted the detective on Nov. 1, stating he made another download from the IP address, and what he saw met the state's requirements for child pornography.
A detective from the Durango Police Department in Colorado contacted the Sheriff's Office on Nov. 6, stating he, also, downloaded a file from the IP address, and the file he downloaded qualified as child pornography.
Hundreds of images found
Sheriff's Office detectives executed the search warrant on Clark's residence on Nov. 6.
Clark's computer contained a folder of the images downloaded by law enforcement.
The hard drive from Clark's computer was examined on Nov. 7, where documents state that hundreds of videos and photos of child pornography were found. They were stored under the user account "Dwayne Clark."
During the Nov. 6 interview, Clark initially claimed his computer was hacked and it was randomly downloading files.
He later said he intentionally downloaded the files and that he meant to delete them but was distracted by video games and forgot.
Clark also stated he knew he shared the files and did not disable sharing the files as it would impact his download speed, according to court documents.
The defendant was released on his own recognizance from the San Juan County Adult Detention Center.
His preliminary hearing is set for the morning of Nov. 14 in Aztec Magistrate Court.
Joshua Kellogg covers breaking news for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4627 or via email at jkellogg@daily-times.com.
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