Santa Cruz Police Arrest Transient for Child Pornography

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz Police Department with help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children arrested Steven Jerome Hibbett, 58, a transient of Santa Cruz on Tuesday for possessing obscene matter involving a child.

Steven Jerome Hibbett

The MCMEC reported to the Santa Cruz Police Department that a user in the area had uploaded child pornography to the Internet  in June.  The Santa Cruz Police Department Cyber Crimes Investigators recognized the “method of operation” to be Hibbett’s based upon his previous arrest back in 2008 and 2009.

Police were able to track Mr. Hibbett to a storage unit in Live Oak.  Mr. Hibbett is on probation from the previous arrest so the police could search him at anytime. A search of the unit produced a laptop.  An examination of that computer yielded several hundred images of child pornography and erotica depicting children as young as five and six years old.

“The Santa Cruz Police Department Cyber Investigators are working with the NCMEC on this case to see where the images came from,” Santa Cruz Police Department spokesperson Zach Friends said in a press release.

The examination also yielded that Mr. Hibbett searched the Internet specifically for images depicting children between eight and eleven years of age.  Hibbett also posed online as a juvenile to engage with other juveniles and adults through a series of social networking sites.

It is believed that no local children are involved in the photos and it is not believed he had any inappropriate contact with any local young children.  Hibbett was arrested and booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail and charged with possession of obscene matter involving children and a probation violation.

The Santa Cruz Police Department is asking anyone with information regarding this case to call them at 1-831- 420-5995.

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Santa Cruz Sentinel: Police Report Finding Child Porn in Live Oak Storage Unit