Airman charged with 4 felonies

By Cass Rains, Staff Writer

December 03, 2008 11:48 pm

— A 21-year-old airman at Vance Air Force Base was charged Wednesday with four felony counts related to possession of child pornography.
Senior Airman Garren S. Mallette was charged with three counts of possession of child pornography and one count of possession of obscene material. Each of the first three counts is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $25,000. Possession of obscene material is punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000.
A joint investigation conducted by Enid Police Department, Air Force Office of Special Investiga-tions and Federal Bureau of Investiga-tion resulted in Mal-lette’s Nov. 25 arrest.
An Internet protocol address was identified as belonging to Mallette and containing known child pornography, according to an affidavit.
On Nov. 18, officers from Air Force Office of Special Investigations conducted a search of Mallette’s dorm, locating several videos of preteen boys engaged in various sex acts.
Mallette was not at the dorm because he had gone on leave in Pennsyl-vania.
Mallette was stop-ped about 8:30 p.m. Nov. 25 returning from leave at the Vance main gate. Detectives from EPD, FBI and OSI detained him while a warrant to search his vehicle was obtained and granted.
Inside Mallette’s vehicle, police found pornographic photographs, along with military documents belonging to Mallette. The photographs depicted children involved in sex acts with other children and adults, according to the affidavit.
During an interview with police, Mallette admitted the images found in his suitcase were his and he had traveled from Pennsylvania to Okla-homa with them, the affidavit states. Mallette said he used the program Lime Wire to download images of child pornography, the last of which he downloaded about six months ago. He estimated he had “a few hundred” images of child pornography.
Mallette is being held at Garfield County Detention Facility in lieu of $100,000 bond.