Keith Monroe Wallace, a juvenile probation officer corrections officer with the county of Humboldt, was arrested last week on federal child pornography charges after a month-long investigation originating out of San Francisco.

Wallace was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service at noon Thursday, and has been held in the Humboldt County Jail since. He will appear for a detention hearing at the federal courthouse in McKinleyville at 11 a.m. today.

The criminal complaint against him, which was filed with the court last week, shows that an investigator with a federal cyber crimes group became aware of Wallace after a confidential informant, who had earlier cut a deal with prosecutors, named Wallace as a person who traded child pornography with him. The informant described Wallace’s Eureka home to agents, and told of how, on about a half-dozen occasions, he entered through a side door of the home to view child pornography with the suspect.

The subsequent investigation, which was aided by investigators from the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office, culminated in the execution of a search warrant at the home on the day Wallace was arrested. According to the complaint, investigators found an external hard drive containing known pornographic video and imagery involving children.

[CORRECTION: Though Wallace is employed by the Humboldt County probation department, he is not a “probation officer” in the traditional sense, as was stated in this article originally; rather, he works as a detention officer. The Outpost regrets the error.]

DOCUMENTS