Man charged with 14 felonies related to child sexual abuse material – Austin Daily Herald

After an investigation that was over a year long, an Austin man has been charged Friday with several felony counts related to child sexual abuse material.

Jason Dean Vandeweerd, 40, was in Mower County District Court Friday morning where he faces 14 counts of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) found across several devices seized from his home. Thirteen of those counts are for possession of pornographic works involving minors under the age of 14, while the 14th is for felony use of minors in sexual performance or pornographic works based upon alleged video taken of a livestream.

Vandeweerd, who was previously registered as a predatory offender until the requirement was met on Sept. 25, 2021, was making a first appearance in court Friday. 

The investigation into Vandeweerd allegedly turned up an incredible number of images and video across the media devices taken from his home on May 7 of this year when a search warrant was executed on his home in the 800 block of Ninth Avenue SW including over 82,000 images and more than 12,000 videos found on a portable drive in use from July 14, 2020 to May 7.

According to the court complaint, the Austin Police Department detective investigating the case observed thousands of files containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), some of which were described as being brutal and disturbing.

Videos were also allegedly found that provided instructions on accessing the dark web and how to pay for child sexual abuse material using cryptocurrency.

The investigation was instigated June 26, 2024, after APD received a report from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) that it had received tips from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children indicating that a user of Microsoft BingImage had been reported as having uploaded files of suspected CSAM.

The BCA subpoenaed T-Mobile and through files provided by the company were able to trace back to Vandeweerd. The APD detective reviewed the suspected files and determined that all 15 files contained CSAM.

When questioned in May as to whether or not he had CSAM on any of his devices, Vandeweerd allegedly responded by saying “I mean possibly.”

The search also turned up several firearms at the residence, which due to a prior case he was prohibited  from possessing.

Items taken from the home were sent off for computer forensic services for analysis with data coming back and being reviewed in August and September of this year.  Vandeweerd was arrested on Sept. 10, during which time a smartphone was seized for a later search.

Vandeweerd’s next court appearance will be on Sept. 22.