A Cheyenne man has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of possessing child pornography.
Stephan M. Blickhan appeared in Laramie County District Court on Thursday to enter the not-guilty pleas. A trial has been set for September.
Charging documents say the alleged crimes came to light in March 2015 after a Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agent used a file-sharing network to download a pornographic image of two young boys from a computer linked to Blickhan.
Agents executed a search warrant at Blickhan’s house in the 600 block of West Second Street in April of last year.
An on-scene preview of a laptop computer and hard drive storage device reportedly showed that the file-sharing network had been downloaded on the computer, and files bearing names consistent with child pornography had been opened using the hard drive.
Blickhan, 36, initially was charged in May 2015 with a single count of sexual exploitation of a child-possessing child pornography.
The Laramie County District Attorney’s Office then filed a motion in August 2015 asking for permission to amend the charging document to reflect multiple images found during the forensic analysis of Blickhan’s electronics.
The motion was granted, and an amended charging document filed the following month charged Blickhan with eight counts of sexual exploitation of a child-possessing child pornography, instead of one.
That case recently was dismissed in light of the 10-count case filed against Blickhan in April of this year.
Each of the counts is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or up to a $10,000 fine.
Court documents indicate Blickhan was arrested on the new charges April 11 and waived his preliminary hearing. He was released from custody on a $10,000 surety bond posted May 17.
According to formal charging documents:
Agents also downloaded a pornographic image of a young girl from Blickhan’s computer through the file-sharing network before executing a search warrant at his home.
After being advised of the initial evidence collected at the scene, Blickhan told investigators he used the file-sharing network to look for and download files of child pornography.
He also told agents that March 24, 2015, and March 28, 2015, might have been the last two days he used his computer to download files of child pornography, because his wife worked those nights, and their two children were sleeping.
In May 2015, investigators became aware that Blickhan’s wife turned over what she believed to be Blickhan’s work laptop and an Apple iPad tablet to his workplace.
A forensic analysis of that laptop revealed multiple movies and videos showing pornographic images of children engaging in sex acts with adults.
Children in two of the videos were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as known victims in the “Vicki” and “Tara” series.
