South Lake Tahoe ski school employee indicted on child porn charges
A South Lake Tahoe children’s ski school employee was charged Wednesday with child exploitation and possession of child pornography.
Stephan L. DeGraffenreid, 26, of Gardnerville, worked at Heavenly Mountain Resort, which is in South Lake Tahoe, California, when he was indicted Wednesday.
DeGraffenreid faces one count of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of possession of child pornography and two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child. He was arrested after child pornography was discovered on an iPod touch found at the resort’s ski school.
The iPod touch belonged to DeGraffenreid, law enforcement later learned, according to a criminal complaint. After a search warrant, detectives found a thumb drive in DeGraffenreid’s residence with explicit images of children in a Gardnerville day care restroom.
DeGraffenreid admitted to downloading and possessing the child pornography, according to the complaint.
The case is being investigated by the FBI, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office and the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.
A call Wednesday afternoon to the ski resort’s office was not returned.
Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter.
