SHELTON — Court documents show two sex workers helped law enforcement build a case against a 31-year-old Shelton man charged with possession of child pornography.
Burnest Geyer, Jr. was arrested on Tuesday (Oct. 8) after police searched his residence. He is also charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The crime was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
According to an arrest warrant, a HSI agent in Florida reached out to the HSI office in New Haven to pass along a tip. A person from a website that lists “independent escorts” told authorities that a person had contacted her through WhatsApp (a social media messaging platform) asking about viewing child pornography.
The person also asked if she had children and whether she would be willing to show her children in a video call, according to the warrant. Eventually the person told her he was into “cp” (child pornography).
The HSI agent in Connecticut learned that Bridgeport police in July had fielded a similar complaint from another adult content creator. That person said she was hosting a webcam show when she received a text from a man “asking if she was into ‘dark taboo’ and if she had children,” according to the document.
The two exchanged phone calls. Police later tracked the phone number to Geyer.
Geyer arranged to communicate with the woman using Telegram, another messaging app. Geyer allegedly said he liked child pornography and wondered whether she would watch it with him.
The woman called police, but did not have any evidence Geyer actually possessed illegal images.
However, the woman contacted Geyer again — and this time recorded her screen during the interaction, during which Geyer allegedly showed her child pornography images and videos.
The woman then called Bridgeport police again. They interviewed her with the HSI agent from New Haven. She showed them the footage, and police went to a judge to get a search warrant for Geyer’s apartment and electronic devices in Shelton.
Police allegedly recovered about 2,000 child pornography images and videos on his phone and his Telegram app.
Geyer is out on a $100,000 bond pending his next date in federal court.
Police in Bridgeport and Shelton assisted in the investigation.
