Caledonia Argus

La Crescent man arrested on child pornography charges

Posted: 4/9/02

By Shannon McKinney
Argus News Reporter

Mark Steven Speltz, 36, of La Crescent appeared in Winona District court Monday, April 8, charged with six counts of possession of pornographic work involving minors.

This was a rule five first appearance hearing, which means no plea is entered, but release conditions are set and the defendant is asked if he understands the charges.

Speltz is represented by Ross Phelps, a private attorney.

Houston County Attorney Richard Jackson requested that Speltz put up a $5,000 bond and sign a waiver of extradition since he works in Wisconsin.

Instead, noting that Speltz is a life long resident of La Crescent, Judge James Fabian released him on his own recognizance. He has the following conditions: no contact with children under 18 years old of is prohibited with the exception of having supervised contact with children he has recently watched. The mother of the children specified was in court and was fine with the supervised contact. Other conditions include having no pornography in his possession and if is he allowed a computer and access to the internet then he stay away off pornographic sites and that his computer be monitored by a probation officer.

He is also to be booked by having his photograph and fingerprints on file at the Houston County Sheriffís Office.

The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 16 at 8:30 a.m. in the Houston County courthouse.

Charges stem from FBI investigation

The charge came after an investigation in January 2001 that was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). An undercover FBI agent joined an online Egroup called the Candyman.

According to the complaint, membership to the Egroup was voluntary. The web site featured a section which allowed members to post images or video files for others to download. Also, all new members were immediately added to the candyman e-mail list. Therefore, every e-mail or image was uploaded to the web site.

From January 1, 2001 through February 6, 2001, the FBI agent received 498 e-mail messages to which were attached approximately 183 child erotica images and 105 child pornography images.

A federal grand jury subpoena was served on Yahoo Services, the owner and operator of E-groups and court orders were served on America Online, Inc.

As a result, the FBI obtained a list of approximately 3,397 addresses of Candyman E-group members.

Speltzís address, 611 North 4th Street, La Crescent, was among the list of members of the Candyman Egroup.

Judge Fabian signed a search warrant on March 14, 2002 and the search was executed on March 18, by La Crescent Police Officer Scott Yeiter.

The defendant, Speltz, told the police where the material could be found.

His computerís hard drive, disk storage devices and a lap top computer were examined by the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in St. Paul.

There were over 50 images in all with several images depicting juvenile males between the ages of four and 10 performing sex acts or having sex acts performed on them.

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