Booking photo for Jacob Rudd (Courtesy: Cache County Jail)
LOGAN — A 29-year-old Logan man has confessed to sharing child pornography over the internet. Jacob R. Rudd was originally arrested in May and booked temporarily into the Cache County Jail.
Rudd participated in a virtual hearing in 1st District Court Monday afternoon, appearing by web conference. He accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
Defense attorney Dennis Pawelek said as part of the deal, prosecutors agreed to drop a second charge against the defendant.
Last year, Logan City police officers received a cyber-tip, describing how Rudd was sharing child pornography over a popular messaging app.
The tip was submitted by SnapChat, describing two files that were uploaded from a user account and shared to others. The files contained two females between the ages of 8 to 12-years-old, in various stages of undress.
Officers tracked the SnapChat user account to a phone number registered to Rudd. They also traced an IP address that was used to upload the files to the suspect’s residence.
Investigators questioned Rudd, who admitted to creating the SnapChat account. He explained how he was a member of several messaging groups which exchanged and shared pornography. He stated that he would “mass download” files from a different messaging app and share them to SnapChat.
During Monday’s court appearance, Judge Brandon Maynard accepted Rudd’s plea deal after verifying the defendant wished to waive his rights to a fair trial. He then scheduled sentencing for Dec. 13.
Rudd spoke only briefly, telling the court he was guilty. He could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
will@cvradio.com