The Federal Building in Burlington houses the U.S. District Courthouse and the U.S. Postal Service. Photo by Bob LoCicero/VTDigger
A Montpelier man and woman are behind bars for their alleged roles in sexually exploiting a child following an investigation of a tip from a user of the social media app Snapchat.
Paul Richards, 33, appeared last week in federal court in Burlington, accused of producing child pornography. He was ordered held without bail and was listed Wednesday as an inmate at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton.
The FBI learned from a tip submitted in late May by a Snapchat user to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a person was sharing images of sexual abuse of a young girl, according to an affidvit by Mark Emmons, an FBI special agent.
Authorities tracked the “digital trail” to the home of the pre-teen girl in Vermont and then identified Richards as the abuser, the affidavit stated.
“The FBI analyst observed that most of the images and videos appeared to be newly produced as they were first seen at NCMEC through the aforementioned Cybertips in May 2019,” according to the affidavit.
Law enforcement, including the FBI, then last week raided an apartment on Barre Street in Montpelier traced by the IP address to an account connected to the internet.
Agents found several items in the apartment that were “consistent in appearance” with those seen in the background of the obscene images, including a striped pillow case and poster collage with yellow background.
During the investigation, the affidavit stated, Marissa Twitchell, 34, of Montpelier, told police that she was in a relationship with Richards that broke off about two weeks earlier.
Twitchell said that she did not use Snapchat, but was aware that Richards had used the WiFi in her apartment to connect to the internet.
Authorities also spoke to the girl, who said Richards had taken the photos of her that appeared on Snapchat, court records stated.
In a later part of the interview with the authorities according the affidavit, Twitchell admitted that “she was aware” that Richards had taken photos of the girl without clothes on.
Twitchell was arraigned Friday in Washington County Superior criminal court on four felony charges: lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, cruelty to a child, and two counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges and was ordered held at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility for lack of $25,000 bail.
If convicted of the federal charge against him, Richards faces a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence and up to 30 years in prison.
Twitchell faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted of the state charges against her.
Asked why Richards is facing a federal charge and Twitchell is charged in state court, Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault, who is prosecuting Twitchell on the state charges, said there didn’t appear, at least at this point, an indication that Twitchell had shared images online.
“There appeared to be a clear federal jurisdictional nexus between Mr. Richards conduct; whereas Ms. Twitchell’s conduct and her admissions clearly fell within the province of state law,” Thibault said.
“Her involvement,” the prosecutor added, “in any distribution may be further revealed as computer forensics and the examination of the digital evidence recovered progresses.”
U.S. Attorney Chirstina Nolan could not be reached Wednesday for comment, though she did issue a statement earlier this week announcing the federal charge against Richards.
“We will continue to come together at all levels of law enforcement to bring strong consequences to those who prey on the innocent,” Nolan stated. “Crimes against children are intolerable and will be treated accordingly.”
Steven Barth, a federal public defender representing Richards, and Avi Springer, an attorney for Twitchell, both could not reached Wednesday for comment.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Montpelier man, woman charged for alleged roles in producing child porn.