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Man faces 40 charges of child pornography
By CHRIS TISCH
© St. Petersburg Times, Prosecutors filed 40 child pornography charges Thursday against a Citrus County man who is awaiting trial in Pinellas County on charges that he solicited an undercover police officer to help him abduct, rape and murder a child. Investigators say Kevin Jalbert, 42, had at least 40,000 pornographic images on his home computer, several hundred of which showed children nude or engaged in sex acts. "We could have charged him with much more," said Lee Strope, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent who has been investigating Jalbert since June. "There are more, but we tried to deal with the younger ones so there isn't such an argument about age. We took the worst of the worst." Strope said the children depicted in the photos Jalbert is charged with possessing are between 8 and 12 years old. If convicted on the 40 charges, Jalbert could face life in prison, said Lisa Herndon, supervisor for the state attorney's office in Citrus County. Jalbert's mother, Agnes Jalbert, said she doesn't believe the charges. She said her son has denied them in talks with her. "He cried to me and he said, "I don't have nothing to do with that stuff,' " she said Thursday from her Citrus County home. "I said, "If you're going to tell me the truth, tell it to me now.' And he told me he has nothing to do with that (child pornography)." Agnes Jalbert said her son told her he received some child pornography over the Internet, but he refused to accept it. But Strope said Kevin Jalbert gave an undercover police officer a disk containing child pornography during initial stages of the investigation in June. Jalbert came under intense investigation after one of his acquaintances told detectives that Jalbert claimed to be a child murderer who planned to strike again. Jalbert also made statements about the abduction of a young boy in Clearwater, records state. This drew the interest of Clearwater police detectives, who for months had been searching for Zach Bernhardt, an 8-year-old boy who disappeared from his Clearwater apartment on Sept. 11, 2000. Clearwater police, with the assistance of FDLE agents, arranged for an undercover detective to meet with Jalbert at his home in Beverly Hills in Citrus County. The detective also arranged to later meet with Jalbert in Clearwater. Jalbert is accused of asking the undercover detective to help him abduct, rape and murder a young child, records state. Jalbert was arrested on charges of solicitation to commit murder, sexual battery and kidnapping. He has been in the Pinellas County Jail since his arrest June 22. Clearwater police initially said they were investigating whether Jalbert was linked to Zach Bernhardt's disappearance, but have since declined to comment on the investigation. Jalbert's mother and sister have said he makes up and exaggerates stories. He told undercover investigators that he had sexual relations with family members and that he often had dinner with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Family members say both tales, along with his claim that he has murdered children, are lies. Agnes Jalbert, who has been questioned by detectives investigating Zach Bernhardt's disappearance, said her son has denied having anything to do with the case. The day after Jalbert's arrest, FDLE agents searched his home and seized computer equipment. Investigators analyzed his computer, culling images that filled eight CDs, Strope said. Authorities charged Jalbert with 20 counts of child pornography possession and 20 charges of possessing child pornography with intent to distribute the images to others. He will face those charges in Citrus County, but remains in the Pinellas County Jail on $640,000 bail. He has a hearing on his Pinellas charges Oct. 24. Strope said agents now are working to determine where Jalbert got the illegal images. He said more than 30,000 images taken from Jalbert's computer were received over the Internet.
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