Registered sex offender accused in child porn case

A 27-year-old man on parole for soliciting nude photos from a teenage girl now faces allegations of child pornography possession.

James M. Bergstrom made an initial appearance Monday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of three counts of possessing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Washington State Department of Corrections community custody Officer Shelley Smith notified Vancouver police Sept. 6 that she had seized and searched a phone belonging to Bergstrom, a registered sex offender, for violating conditions of his release, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Another corrections department officer said he witnessed Bergstrom remove a cellphone from the smoking station outside a Department of Corrections building, according to the affidavit. Bergstrom admitted to having the phone and handed it over when confronted by two officers.

“(Bergstrom) also stated he had nude photos on the phone and had been accessing the internet,” the affidavit says.

The officer who wrote the probable cause affidavit noted that they investigated a separate case in 2016 involving Bergstrom, in which he “posed as a 15-year-old male in order to solicit nude photos from a 14-year-old female victim,” the affidavit says.

Police obtained a search warrant for the phone Nov. 27. Two days later, a forensic report concluded that the cellphone contained child pornography, including sexually explicit images of boys and girls as young as 8 years old, according to the affidavit.

Judge John Fairgrieve set bail in Bergstrom’s case at $25,000.

An arraignment hearing was scheduled for Jan. 25.