A former captain with the Salvation Army of the Black Hills has admitted to viewing and collecting child pornography since the early 2000s. The admission by 41-year old Javier Moreno came in a plea deal filed Monday in federal court.
Moreno was arrested in June on charges of both receipt and possession of child pornography. The plea agreement indicates he will plead guilty to the receipt charge with prosecutors dropping the possession charge.
Moreno had been serving with the Salvation Army in Detroit when he came to Rapid City in 2019 as its Black Hills Area Coordinator.
Court documents show the child porn investigation began with a cybertip to the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children.
Investigators linked it to pornographic images on an account at the Salvation Army Camp in west Rapid City where Moreno was living. The IP addresses were also connected to a wireless account associated with Moreno’s work phone.
The social media platform supplied content from Moreno’s account to investigators who found over 10,000 recordings and images of child pornography. A search warrant was served at Moreno’s residence later and 33 devices seized.
He then confessed he’d been watching and collecting child porn for nearly 2 decades and sent some of it to other individuals.
No date has been set for the change of plea hearing. If Moreno does plead guilty to the receipt charge, he would be sentenced to between 5 and 20 years in federal prison.