Ex-fire official may face child-porn counts

A former state fire official accused of arranging a sexual encounter with a teenage girl over the Internet may face additional charges of possession of child pornography, prosecutors said Thursday.

Dennis Steadman now faces one count of enticement of a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity for allegedly having online sexual conversations and scheduling a meeting with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl but was actually an undercover investigator working with the state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

The 54-year-old fire battalion chief was arrested Feb. 16 when he arrived at the alleged meeting place. Steadman, a 30-year veteran of the United Fire Authority, formerly the Salt Lake County Fire Department, pleaded not guilty to the charge Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Also Thursday, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Amann said prosecutors may seek a superseding indictment if a forensic examination of Steadman's personal computer turns up evidence of child pornography. Immediately following his arrest, Steadman told law enforcers he had been "collecting" child pornography, Amann said.

After court, defense attorney Greg Skordas said he was previously unaware of the pornography allegations and said he was confident the government's investigation will show that additional charges are not warranted.

"I doubt very seriously that there is any child porn on his computer," Skordas said.

Steadman was originally charged in state court with two counts of enticing a minor over the Internet, second-degree felonies that carry a possible one to 15-year prison sentence. Those charges were dropped in favor of the federal prosecution, where the single enticement charge carries a minimum five-year sentence and a maximum of 30 years behind bars.

On Thursday, Skordas questioned the switch from state to federal court, musing that prosecutors were perhaps using the increased time to "make an example" out of his client.

"I suppose part of the reason in this case is because of Dennis' position in the community and the fact that maybe he should be held to a higher standard," he said.

Steadman has been released from custody pending his scheduled May trial on the enticement charge. U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba on Thursday denied a government request to detain Steadman pending trial, instead imposing a series of restrictions such as forbidding Steadman from accessing the Internet for any purpose or from having unsupervised conduct with anyone under the age of 18. Alba also ordered Steadman to surrender his passport by the day's end and undergo a mental health evaluation and any subsequent treatment evaluators deemed necessary.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com