PREVIOUSLY: Humboldt Man Arrested This Morning for Possession and Distribution of Child Pornography

The preliminary hearing has been scheduled for an Arcata man charged with possession of child pornography.

Matthew Steele

Today Judge Christopher Wilson set a June 14 preliminary hearing for Matthew Aaron Steele, 37. He was arrested in January, several months after authorities searched his apartment and seized electronic devices containing hundreds of allegedly pornographic photos of under-aged girls.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department began investigating Steele in June when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported  he had uploaded a possible child pornography image to his cellphone. Sheriff’s Detective Mark Peterson viewed the photo, which showed two nude girls appearing to be about 10 years old and posed in a sexual manner.

Peterson, in his declaration of support of an arrest warrant, states he obtained a warrant to search Steele’s apartment in the Valley West area of Arcata. The search warrant was served on June 16, and Steele answered the door.

“Matthew said he did look at pornography on the Internet,” Peterson wrote, “but to his knowledge nothing he viewed was illegal.” He said Steele refused to comment further, saying he wanted to speak with a lawyer.

During the search of the apartment Peterson and other officers seized 16 electronic devices including cellphones, computers and “electronic media storage devices.”
The various devices were examined by a district attorney’s investigator, who found about 500 images of possible child pornography. The alleged victims were all female and ranged from toddlers to teens.

“Some of the females appeared that they could be in their late teens, some of the images appeared to depict females who were about 10 years old and some of the pictures appeared to depict toddler-aged females,” Peterson wrote. “Some of the photos were of nude females and some were of partially clothed females. Some of the photos depicted females involved in sexual acts.”

Steele was arrested Jan. 10 and booked into Humboldt County Correctional Facility. He posted $200,000 bail and remains out of custody.

He is represented by Eureka attorney Michael Robinson, who appeared in court this morning on his behalf. The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Schaffer.