Former police candidate, Freeland resident, pleads guilty to child pornography charge

A South Whidbey man who admitted to having child pornography on his computer during a polygraph exam will likely go to prison.

A South Whidbey man who admitted to having child pornography on his computer during a polygraph exam will likely go to prison.

Dylan G. Jefferies pleaded guilty in Island County Superior Court Monday to one count of first-degree possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Jefferies was originally facing 17 counts of child porn charges.

Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Eric Ohme explained that he was taking over the case for a former deputy prosecutor who made the plea bargain with Jefferies’ attorney. Under the agreement, both the prosecutor and defense will recommend that Jefferies serve a sentence of one year and one day in prison.

The plea bargain was contingent on whether Jefferies was “amenable” to sex offender treatment.

Ohme said Jefferies was evaluated and will be able to receive treatment.

After his release from prison, Jefferies will have to register as a sex offender for 15 years.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5. The state Department of Corrections will first conduct a pre-sentence investigation and will also make an independent sentencing recommendation.

Jefferies, a Freeland resident and former firefighter, submitted to a polygraph exam in 2011 after he applied to become a reserve police officer with the City of Langley.

Jefferies allegedly admitted to the examiner that he had images of child pornography on his home computer, according to the detective’s report on the case.

Detective Ed Wallace with the Island County Sheriff’s Office was called in to investigate the case.

He’s a forensic computer expert.

Wallace obtained a search warrant and seized a computer and a hard disk drive from Jefferies’ home.

Wallace said he found many images and videos that appeared to be child porn. He submitted the suspected files to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to determine if any of the child victims are known; the group reported back that nine of the image files and eight videos are known child porn with known victims.