Former CHP Captain Seized in Porn Sting
SAN BERNARDINO — A former California Highway Patrol captain was arrested this week in an undercover investigation of child pornography that netted hundreds of photographs and videotapes.
Jim Carl Burchett, 58, was arrested after he showed up at an Ontario motel where an undercover deputy had set up a sting, said Jim Bryant, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Burchett had shown the deputy child pornography in an attempt to persuade him to bring two girls, ages 11 and 9, to the motel, where he allegedly planned to have sex with them and videotape the activity, Bryant said.
Burchett, former captain of the CHP’s Barstow station before his medical disability retirement in 1983, was booked for investigation of attempted lewd conduct with a child, Bryant said. He was held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Deputies found hundreds of sex photographs and up to 800 videotapes at Burchett’s Barstow home, Bryant said. It was not clear whether Burchett produced the pictures or got them elsewhere, he said.
Postal authorities, who also took part in the investigation, are considering federal mail charges, Bryant said.
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