Arlington officer accused in child pornography case

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 22, 2026

An Arlington police officer allegedly hid hard drives containing child pornography in a compartment inside a closet at his Camano Island home, according to court documents.

The hard drives were discovered by the officer’s girlfriend after she saw pornographic images of children on his computer, a police report states.

The suspect, 41-year-old Dustin M. Bartlett, was placed on administrative leave from the Arlington Police Department following his arrest this week, his attorney said in court Wednesday. Just a week before his arrest, the department celebrated Bartlett with a post on social media thanking him for his service during National Police Week. He was described as a key member of the drone program and a field training officer who served as a negotiator and a rescue vehicle driver.

During the preliminary hearing in Island County Superior Court on Wednesday, Judge Carolyn Cliff found probable cause to believe Bartlett may have committed the crimes of 10 counts of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first degree and one count of fourth-degree assault, domestic violence.

Cliff set Bartlett’s bail at $100,000. He immediately posted bail, according to the Island County Jail roster.

In court, Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Laura Twitchell recommended the high bail amount, saying that possession of child pornography is not a victimless crime since it promotes the sexual exploitation of children.

In addition, Twitchell argued that she was concerned Bartlett may try to intimidate a witness or interfere with the administration of justice. She said he pushed his girlfriend away from his computer after she saw the suspected child pornography, and he deleted data from the hard drive while she was calling 911 to report him. He also called a deputy, claiming he was missing drives that contain “sensitive work-related cases.”

Twitchell said Bartlett was in possession of a large number of images and that he could face up to eight and a half years in prison if convicted of the crimes he is accused of committing.

Bartlett’s attorney, Claire Highland, requested a smaller bail amount, saying her client has no criminal history, has been cooperating with law enforcement and plans to continue to do so. She said he has little money to post bail and is the primary custodial parent of three children.

Highland asked the judge to allow Bartlett to have supervised visits with his children; Twitchell opposed the request, citing an allegation that child pornography images were found under his daughter’s bed.

Cliff agreed with most of the prosecution’s recommendations, except she allowed Bartlett to have supervised contact with his children.

According to a report by Detective Ed Wallace with the Island County Sheriff’s Office, deputies on Camano Island were initially dispatched to a report of a domestic assault at the home. When they arrived, Bartlett’s girlfriend said she caught Bartlett looking at a pornographic image of a young girl on his computer. He allegedly swore at her when she told him he needed to report the materials to police, the report states.

The woman said she saw other folders on the computer with names such as “14-year-old,” but he pushed her away, according to the report. She called police while he allegedly deleted files from his computer.

Bartlett denied assaulting his girlfriend and denied possessing child pornography, claiming the woman had found his old pornography collection and become angry, Wallace wrote.

The deputies did not believe they had probable cause to arrest Bartlett for possession of child pornography or domestic assault at the time. Bartlett agreed to stay at a different location.

Four days later, the woman contacted deputies again and asked them to respond to the home. She said she searched a walk-in closet and found a small knob that appeared to be out of place on a rack where he hung his bulletproof vest. She pulled the knob and found the two hard drives, the report states.

Wallace reviewed the folders on the hard drive and found 80 files containing child pornography, including videos of children being raped, Wallace wrote. He added in his report that the images were located during a brief scan and that more could be uncovered during a full forensic examination.