Camanche man facing possession of child porn charges
May 16—A Camanche man has been charged with 10 counts of the the purchase or possession of the depiction of a minor in a sex act, following law enforcement's investigation of cyber tips provided by Mediacom Inc.
Eldon Don Drury, 69, is charged in Clinton County District Court with eight counts classified as an aggravated misdemeanors and two counts each classified as Class D felonies.
Under Iowa Code, each of the Class D felonies are punishable by incarceration for a period of up to five years and a fine of no less than $1,025 but not to exceed $10,245.
According to documents filed in Clinton County District Court on Tuesday, authorities had been notified in September of last year that two National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cyber tips had been assigned for further investigation.
The cyber tips indicated that on or about May 5, 2023, and May 7, 2023, suspected images depicting child pornography had been uploaded utilizing the electronic service provider Microsoft Bing Images. Microsoft captured the IP address from which the image had been uploaded that was registered to internet service provider Mediacom Inc.
A County Attorney's subpoena was issued to Mediacom Inc to identify the customer assigned the IP address in the two cyber tips. Law enforcement then sought and was granted a search warrant for the address of the Camanche residence, executed Sept. 15, 2023.
Drury and his wife were present in the home at the time of the search warrant's execution.
Court documents state that during an interview, Drury admitted to searching for and saving "hundreds" of child pornography files for the past two years utilizing a file sharing program on computers used exclusively by him in his residence. Drury also stated he had moved the files to external hard drives.
Numerous electronic devices were seized from the residence, including a Dell XPS computer and one-terabyte capacity external hard drive. Forensic examination conducted by the Johnson County Sheriff's Office resulted in the location of the file sharing software on the Dell XPS computer reported totals of 1,743 images and 17 videos created between Aug. 8, 2020, and September 3, 2023.
Each of the charges against Drury, court documents state, were filed for each child depicted between those dates.
A warrant for Drury's arrest was issued Wednesday by Seventh Judicial District Court Judge Kimberly Shepherd. Drury was taken into custody that same day and held on a $50,000 cash-only bond until it was posted Thursday and he was released from custody.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled in Clinton County for May 24.
