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in the Kenosha News.

By Jessica Fryman

The case against a local man charged with 20 felonies for possession of child pornography will continue after a motion to suppress evidence was denied Friday.

Kevin M. Derks’ defense attorney argued a search warrant was based on stale information from an investigation of a child pornography website that the defendant had unsubscribed to more than a year before police searched his home.

As a result of the November 2009 search, police found a “world” of pornography, including more than 100 DVDs of child erotica and images of children in sexual poses that covered his walls, cupboards and shelves, the criminal complaint says. If convicted, Derks faces up to 500 years in prison.

A pre-trial hearing is set for Sept. 10.

Judge Barbara A. Kluka cited a previous case and an expert’s perspective that thousands of images can
be downloaded from a one month pornography website membership, and that those images can be found on a hard drive for years, even if they have been deleted. She said an expert agent also said most people who collect pornography are unlikely to voluntarily get rid of the images.

“Under the standards that I am to consider, there was a fair probability that child pornography would be found in the residence or at the premises identifi ed in the search warrant,” Kluka said. “I conclude that there was sufficient evidence to establish probable cause.”

Derks, who is out of jail because he posted $50,000 cash bond, swiveled his chair from side to side and showed no emotion while Kluka approved the validity of the warrant and the subsequent evidence collected from carrying it out.

Before agents could carry out that search, it took investigators nearly a year to collect background information and subpoenas for the case. Derks was first interviewed Nov. 17, 2009, but he would not allow officials into his home. He agreed to talk to investigators in his basement, where he fainted twice
and had to be taken to the hospital for injuries. A warrant was issued and carried out the following day.

When authorities returned Nov. 18, they stepped inside a world of “true love” Derks said he created to comfort himself as the outside world grew “worse and worse,” the criminal complaint says.

Poster-sized memorials to at least two dead children, including one killed by her father, were among the other images and celebrity child paraphernalia. Four mannequins were posed in “tender” positions, the complaint says.

Derks reportedly used binoculars and a telephoto camera lens to photograph children from 30 to 50 feet
away at Kenosha beaches, but contents of those photos have not been released.

Although that behavior and his apartment shrine have been called concerning, Derks said he never touched children, and no one has come forward to say that he used them to create child pornography.

This story was originally published in the Kenosha News
on June 26, 2010.