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Child porn case against jailed Tampa man grows

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published August 11, 2005

TAMPA - The case against a Tampa man already charged with 19 counts of possessing child pornography ballooned on Wednesday, when Tampa police detectives filed more than 600 additional counts against him.

Stephen James Chesser, jailed June 15 after authorities accused him of downloading pornographic items from a computer at Hillsborough Community College, faces 596 more counts of possessing child pornography and nine additional counts of distributing child pornography.

Authorities, concerned there may be child victims who have yet to report abuse by Chesser, are asking anyone with information to come forward as they continue to investigate the case.

Chesser was arrested the afternoon of June 15 at the HCC campus, 4001 W Tampa Bay Blvd., where investigators say he used the college's computers to download pornographic images of children.

Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said the new charges are the result of a subsequent search of Chesser's storage shed, located behind the north Tampa home at 1610 E Annona Ave. where he lived with his parents.

Detective Skip McCaughey, a member of the FBI's Innocent Images Task Force, which investigates computer-related sexual crimes against children, went to the property July 26.

McCaughey seized from the shed more than 3,000 pornographic items including child erotica, videos, magazines and pictures, according to a police report.

Durkin said investigators have spent the two weeks since the search sifting through all the items and conferring with the State Attorney's Office.

All of the charges against Chesser are felonies.

Meanwhile, the investigation into Chesser continues.

"Tampa police and the Innocent Images Task Force are concerned that there may be victims out there that we don't know about," Durkin said.

Chesser was arrested in January 2003 on four counts of child pornography possession and two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation, county court records show. But the case was dismissed eight months later.

Anyone with information about Chesser is asked to call Detective McCaughey at (813) 272-8209.

[Last modified August 11, 2005, 00:42:17]