By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Stillwater teenager accused of possessing and distributing child pornography, as well as violating the Oklahoma Computer Crimes law, has been released from the Payne County Jail on $50,000 cash bond pending an April 3 court appearance.
If convicted of a three-count charge, Cole Albert Toben, 19, could be imprisoned for as long as 45 years and fined $55,000, according to court documents filed by Payne County Assistant District Attorney Erica Garuccio last week.
After being notified of a cyber tip from Snapchat last year, Stillwater Police Detective Stephanie Wheeler began conducting an investigation that resulted in the defendant’s arrest at 10:44 am on Feb. 16 of this year, according to her affidavit.
During an interview with the defendant at his residence where a search warrant was served about two hours earlier, “He had a reaction to speaking with me. He became pale and stated he was seeing spots. An ambulance was called, and he was seen by medical personnel,” the Stillwater detective wrote in her affidavit.
“While he was in the ambulance, Detective Jason Kushmaul with Edmond PD Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force stayed with Cole. Once Cole was cleared medically, he was escorted back into the residence. I was advised by Detective Kushmaul that Cole stated that he started trading pictures on Instagram and then eventually moved to Snapchat. He would talk to people online, and they would agree to trade content on Snapchat,” the Stillwater detective alleged in her affidavit.
“He stated that he knew it was wrong and that it was a ‘piece of shit’ thing that has been hovering over his head ever since he did it. The youngest children that were in the Child Sexual Abuse Material that he had was approximately 10 years of age. He only traded pictures of girls. He never had the ages people wanted to trade with. So (he) held onto the Child Sexual Abuse Material to have content to trade with others.
“He had asked a person online for pictures of 15- and 16-year-olds. The man sent him a file that had content involving children that were too young and being physically abused. There was one video that stood out to him,” that he found disgusting, the affidavit alleged.
“He had saved content on his phone. A few months ago, he went through his phone and tried to delete anything that he has ever had,” the affidavit alleged.
“The last time he traded was before Christmas, sometime in December. He would go through periods of not trading because in the back of his mind he knows it is wrong. He knows that he was trading child pornography. He deserves to be punished for it,” the affidavit alleged.
