An online investigation began on April 13th, 2018 by Maricopa County Sheriff’s detectives in the Cyber Crimes Unit that resulted in the arrest of 59-year-old, John Pappas.
Detectives were able to obtain information about the downloading and sharing of large amounts of known child pornography over the internet. On May 17, 2018 detectives executed a search warrant on the residence of Pappas located at 11309 W. Hubbell St. Avondale.
Pappas confessed to the allegations but when technicians conducted on-scene previews of several computers inside the residence they were met with negative results. Forensic examiners were later able to extract images from the suspect’s overwritten hard drive. Case agents worked with the nonprofit group Childhelp to determine those images depicted child pornography. A Grand Jury warrant was then obtained for John Pappas based on that evidence.
On November 14, 2018 detectives contacted Pappas at his residence in Avondale, and placed him under arrest. He was booked into the 4th Avenue Jail on his outstanding arrest warrant – eight (8) counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, and Dangerous Crimes against Children. According to authorities, there are currently no known hands-on offenses resulting from this investigation.
The recovered images are also being cross referenced with known child victims, and the results will be forwarded to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for identification purposes.