Last week, Edgewood Police arrested Colin Clausen, 37, on one count of Sexual Exploitation of Children. The warrant issued for Clausen’s arrest stated that in June 2023, three files were uploaded to an email address and phone number associated with Clausen, and that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMAE) has categorized these files as “either Apparent Child Pornography” or “Child Pornography.” All three files were labeled as “upload.”
On February 19, the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges against Clausen, stating that charges could be filed again pending further investigation.
In November, Clausen ran for the Edgewood Commission seat in District 3 and lost the election to newcomer Patrick M. Milligan who took 72% of the votes.
According to the criminal complaint, the Sexual Exploitation of Children charge states that the Clausen “Did intentionally possess an obscene visual or print medium depicting a sexual act or simulation of such act.. and he knew or had reason to know that one or more of the participants in that act was a child under thirteen years of age.” Detectives conducted several background inquiries and ran comprehensive social media reports to collect evidence tying Clausen to the accounts from which the files were uploaded and shared.
Investigators say they used publicly available data including Town of Edgewood Historical records to collect evidence tying Clausen to the alleged crimes. Debate footage from the November 3rd District election helped police match Clausen to the subscriber information provided by Verizon.
The NCMAE created the Cyber Tipline portal in February 2000 to which Electronic Service Providers (ESPs) can report child sexual exploitation and potential distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material. On June 4, 2023 Synchronoss Technologies Inc. (Verizon Cloud) found files containing explicit sexual material involving “what appears to be prepubescent girl[s]” and reported the discovery to the Cyber Tipline.