Porn bust used to push funding bill

Law enforcement officers used a recent late-night child pornography bust to drive home to legislators the importance of funding the prosecution of child-sex predators in Utah and the prevention of child pornography.

Last week, police arrested 53-year-old Wayne Jay Bergeson at his Sandy home. Police had to use a battering ram to break down his door after he refused to open it to police, according to the Utah Attorney General's Office.

In the home, where Bergeson lived alone, police said they found 10 computers packed with child pornography, numerous CDs labeled and listed by "fetish," several toys new in their boxes and at least five firearms.

"You could have gone to Toys 'R' Us and not found the variety of toys he had there," Ken Wallentine, chief of law enforcement at the Utah Attorney General's Office, told members of the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Standing Committee.

Bergeson was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of possession of child pornography and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Wallentine said a search of court records found that Bergeson was charged with kidnapping, rape and sodomy in 1979 and had been convicted of felony kidnapping. Because of that, Bergeson was not allowed by law to have firearms. Wallentine said Bergeson also had a $5,000 warrant in a pending forgery case.

The pornography case came to light, Wallentine said, when Bergeson offered to share child-pornography images with an undercover agent of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, an arm of the Utah Attorney General's Office.

"The safety of children is very critical," said Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, who is sponsoring HB107, which would expand personnel within ICAC, as well as education programs to teach students about Internet safety.

Bigelow said there is a "real world" out there where predators are looking to lure young women and men.

Layton Police Chief Terry Keefe said he would like to have ICAC provide more training to his officers. Already with the help of ICAC, Keefe said his investigators have arrested six people who have targeted Layton children on the Internet.

The bill proposes $273,250 for new staff positions and $1 million to expand Internet-safety education programs through the Utah Attorney General's Office and the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.

Wallentine said the funding is also needed to compensate for expected cuts in federal funding grants that ICAC has relied on in the past.

Committee members unanimously passed the bill, which now goes to the House floor for debate.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com