New Canaan Police on July 23 arrested a 24-year-old New Canaan man by warrant and charged him with third-degree possession of child pornography.
On Nov. 16, 2023, Sgt. Michael O’Sullivan received a “CyberTip Report” from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that Dropbox had flagged the content stored in the online infrastructure of a New Canaan resident, according to an arrest warrant application written by O’Sullivan and obtained by NewCanaanite.com.
The tip stated the suspect’s username and email address and that six files containing child pornography had been uploaded to his Dropbox account, according to the police affidavit, which was signed by a prosecuting attorney and state Superior Court judge.
The tip also revealed three IP Addresses from which the suspect had accessed the Dropbox account, according to the affidavit. Multiple strategies, including an Administrative Subpoena served by a Homeland Security Special Agent, showed that the IP Addresses all had a connection to the suspect. They included a former place of work, the university that the suspect attended, and the suspect’s current residence at his parents’ house in New Canaan.
Dropbox “confirmed that they contained apparent child pornography,” the application said. The six files within the suspect’s account were discovered while reviewing the results of a Dropbox search warrant executed on Feb. 2, 2024.
The search warrant revealed the full contents within the suspect’s Dropbox account, according to the affidavit. O’Sullivan and two other officers examined the account and determined there were 54 violating images and videos confirmed to be of prepubescent children.
Additional subpoenas and search warrants revealed information that further connected the suspect to the Dropbox account, including the recovery email address, recovery telephone number, IP Address, and completed homework assignments, according to the application.
The Dropbox account also included video footage of the suspect’s residence and former university, the affidavit said. Authorities also found what O’Sullivan described as “alarming search activity” when it was determined that the suspect in December 2022 had searched for ‘New Canaan Connecticut Baby Sitting.’
Immediately after receiving the CyberTip, New Canaan Police began to monitor the suspect’s residence to build a pattern of life, O’Sullivan said in the application, including using a stationary license plate reader. Months of intelligence were gathered, ultimately leading to police knowledge of his current place of employment in Norwalk.
Upon receiving approval for the arrest warrant, O’Sullivan arrested the suspect at his place of work for the felony offense.
The man was released on $75,000 bond and is scheduled for arraignment on Aug. 6, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch records. He will be represented by the Fairfield-based Law Offices of Eugene J. Riccio.
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