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Deputies seize computer, images of child porn

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published January 12, 2006

TAMPA - A 33-year-old man who lives with his mother in northwest Hillsborough was jailed Wednesday afternoon on 865 felony counts, after authorities seized his computer and found hundreds of pornographic images of children, according to sheriff's officials.

John Leslie Bagis, of 4733 El Dorado Drive in northwest Hillsborough, was arrested there and taken to the county jail, where he was held without bail.

He is charged with 40 counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child; 825 counts of possession of child pornography; and one count of showing obscene material to a minor. All are felonies.

This was his first arrest in Florida, according to state criminal records.

Sheriff's detectives have been investigating Bagis since Sept. 24, when they received a complaint that he was photographing an 11-year-old girl in Hillsborough County, said sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway. To protect the girl, authorities are not releasing her name or the location where the photographs were shot.

But investigators say Bagis, who is 6-foot-2 and 270 pounds, made the girl pose in sexually explicit positions. Then he downloaded the photographs onto his computer and showed them to the girl.

Detectives seized Bagis' computer, and computer analysts found 40 images of the 11-year-old girl, Callaway said. They also found 825 pornographic photographs of unidentified infants and toddlers, and preadolescent and teenage children, according to a sheriff's report. Detectives are still trying to determine who the children are.

Anyone with information about Bagis or the pictures is asked to call the sheriff's office at (813) 247-8200.

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 12, 2006, 01:21:24]