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Clark County Youth Football coach faces child porn allegations

By Jerzy Shedlock, Columbian Breaking News Reporter, and
Jessica Prokop, Columbian Local News Editor
Published: October 8, 2018, 11:36am

A 40-year-old man who coached Clark County Youth Football appeared Monday morning in court to face allegations of child pornography possession.

Nicholas A. Clark of Camas appeared on suspicion of three counts of first-degree possessing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and a single count of second-degree possessing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Deputy Prosecutor Brian Pruett said the prosecution learned through detectives that Clark coached children ages 6 to 8 through Clark County Youth Football.

Terry Hyde, league president of Clark County Youth Football, said Clark coached fourth- and fifth-graders.

“Clark County Youth Football does an extensive background check on all coaches, volunteers and anyone who works with the children,” Hyde said in an email Monday afternoon.

Upon learning of the allegations, Clark was immediately removed from the program, Hyde said, and will not have “access to players or (Clark County Youth Football) events for the remainder of the season.”

On Aug. 30, the Vancouver Police Department’s Digital Evidence Cybercrime Unit began investigating a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding an account on Tumblr, a blogging and social media networking site, that was uploading suspected child pornography, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Tumblr had notified the organization June 23 that the profile had tried to pass an image of child pornography through its servers, and provided the user’s screen name and two internet protocol, or IP, addresses — one through Verizon and the other through Comcast, the affidavit states.

Investigators served a search warrant and obtained subscriber information from Verizon. The subscribers were listed as Clark’s wife and a business account, and was registered to their home in Camas and a business off of Grand Boulevard. The account was also traced to Clark’s cellphone number, court records say.

On Friday, investigators served a search warrant at Clark’s business and residence. Clark was home but declined to speak with authorities. Investigators seized his iPhone and found a “plethora of images and/or videos depicting children ranging from the ages of 5 to 11 engaging in sexual conduct. Some of these images showed children being directed to engage in ‘bondage,’” according to court documents.

Police reviewed at least three of the images and determined them to be child pornography, the affidavit says.

On Monday, Clark County Superior Court Judge John Fairgrieve set Clark’s bail at $10,000, citing the nature of the allegations. An arraignment hearing was set for Oct. 16.

Clark did not qualify for a court-appointed attorney.

Clark said he has never been in trouble with the law. He runs his own business where he manages employees, he said, before Fairgrieve decided his bail amount. Clark said he’d be able to pay bail. If he posts bail, Clark is not to have contact with minors as part of his conditions of release.

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Columbian Breaking News Reporter