Havre man faces child pornography charges

A Havre man accused of having and sending child pornography through the internet pleaded not guilty to the charge Wednesday in state District Court as he appeared before the judge.

Jason R. Keller, born in 1987, is charged with one felony count of sexual abuse of children.

Charging documents say the investigation into Keller began after a photograph of two prepubescent boys engaged in oral sex was sent from his IP address. The photo was flagged as child pornography by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Dec. 8. The tip was eventually assigned to Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer. The undersheriff concluded the computer IP address belonged to Keller and informed a detective with the Havre Police Department June 29, files say.

Documents say Keller was arrested and transported to the police station, where he was interviewed by a Homeland Security agent and Billmayer.

Members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Havre Police Department seized "a multitude of computers," computer storage devices and flash drives from Keller's home.

Files say Keller admitted to going online to websites and chat rooms and navigating to boy sections to watch porn. The charging document said Keller "admitted to downloading files on accident and then later said he downloaded them in attempt to report the person(s) providing the child pornography."

Keller admitted to liking boys in their teens and searching the internet for "young teen," adding that the term meant men 18-to 20-years old, court documents say.

Documents say Keller admitted to being the only person with access to the Skype account that was used to transmit the picture and that he said he was not being fully honest, because he was trying to gauge how much to tell. He said he sent the picture to someone in exchange to chat with a man over 18.

Havre Police Department Assistant Chief Jason Barkus, who is involved in the case, said Tuesday that, while the internet makes it possible for these type of images to be transmitted easily, "we certainly don't see these types of crimes in our community every day."

Keller was not on the Hill County Detention Center roster this morning.