Las Vegas police officer arrested had ‘prolific’ stash of porn files, report says

A Las Vegas police officer arrested on child pornography charges had a “prolific” presence on a file sharing network — possibly the most child porn files on the network of anyone in Nevada, a Metro arrest record said.

Metropolitan Police Department officer Ruben Delgadillo was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Friday, charged with five counts of possession of child pornography and a charge of distribution of child pornography.

According to the arrest record, a Metro detective with the Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was alerted to a “prolific presence” on the network by investigative software. Investigators using undercover profiles confirmed the presence of child pornography at a specific internet protocol address, a unique number assigned to a computer using the internet.

Investigators subpoenaed Cox Communications and tracked the IP address to Delgadillo, arrest records said.

The records said police recovered a laptop containing child porn files, but did not enumerate how many.

The arrest report summarizes 10 of the video files police recovered from the computer, which depict small children and even infants being abused.

Police interviewed Delgadillo while a search warrant was being executed at his home on Aug. 12.

According to the arrest record, Delgadillo at first said he liked anime and bestiality videos but denied downloading any child pornography. He told police he had seen only it once while in school.

When pressed further, Delgadillo allegedly admitted to possessing the child porn and described search terms used to find it on the file sharing network.

The arrest record states Delgadillo had been struggling with his interest in child porn: “He explained that since he began his field training on the streets of Las Vegas he occasionally felt a lot of guilt because he would see or hear about a real case of child molestation and become concerned with comparing himself to the hands-on sex offenders.”

Delgadillo joined the department in July 2015 and was assigned to the community policing division in the northwest area substation. He will be placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the case’s outcome, police said.

He is due in court for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 31.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find @WesJuhl on Twitter.