BENTONVILLE -- A Siloam Springs man pleaded innocent Monday to charges he possessed child pornography and engaged in video voyeurism.
Donald Ray Thele, 43, appeared in court for his arraignment before Circuit Judge Brad Karren. Thele is charged with 10 counts of distributing, possession or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, a Class C felony, and video voyeurism, a Class D felony.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Thele, who is free on $50,000 bond, was arrested April 28.
His arrest was the result of an investigation by the Benton County Sheriff's Office after Lt. Greg Stevenson received a thumb drive from a concerned resident in January. Detectives discovered the thumb drive contained images of sexually explicit activities involving children ranging in estimated ages from 6 to 17, according to a probable cause affidavit. Thele's tax documents also were found on the thumb drive, according to the document.
Detectives obtained a search warrant and seized multiple digital devices including a cellphone, according to the affidavit. Numerous images of child pornography also were found on the cellphone. Some of the images were stored in an application designed to hide images, videos and other file types on a phone, according to the affidavit.
Also on the phone were multiple images of a female in a bathtub taken from what appeared to be a hidden camera in the bathroom. The female didn't appear to have knowledge of the camera. She didn't pose or acknowledge the camera, the affidavit states.
Thele admitted to recording the images in the bathroom, and he said the female was unaware she was being recorded, according to court documents.
Thele's next court appearance is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. July 20.
If convicted, he could be sentenced from three to 10 years for each of the child pornography related charges. He faces up to six years in prison if convicted of video voyeurism.
NW News on 06/09/2015