Court documents: Now-former Trine University instructor charged with 15 counts of child exploitation
ANGOLA, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) - A now-former Trine University instructor has initially been charged with 15 counts of child exploitation, court documents say.
In a post on the Angola Police Department’s Facebook page, police say Steven J. Messer, 32, of Angola, was arrested at his home in the 200 block of Henry Place just before 9 a.m. on Tuesday after a lengthy investigation.
Angola police say detectives received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and determined during the investigation that no local children were involved.
Court documents say the tip involved someone uploading 21 images of suspected child pornography on July 21, 2022, using Google Drive. The court documents say that Google and an Angola detective confirmed that at least one of the 21 files uploaded was child pornography, containing a child less than 12 years old.
The Angola detective examined the additional files and was able to confirm that some of the files had been historically labeled as child pornography by Google in a past case, court documents say. The detective was able to confirm that all of the files uploaded contained child pornography.
According to the court documents, when Angola police interviewed Messer about the photos, Messer confirmed with the police that he knew the photos were pornographic.
At the conclusion of the interview, Messer was taken to the Steuben County Jail.
Trine University issued the following statement in response to Fort Wayne NBC’s request for confirmation of Messer’s employment at the university:
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