denver post – Denver Nuggets center Christopher “Birdman” Andersen has been “excused indefinitely” from team activies while Douglas County sheriff’s detectives investigate him for unknown Internet crimes against children, the team announced this afternoon.
Authorities searched Andersen’s Larkspur home this morning and seized property. Andersen, 33, has not been arrested or charged with a crime….
In Colorado, Internet crimes against children can include anything from exchanging pornographic images of kids to using chatrooms in order to lure children for sexual purposes.
Frequently in these types of investigations, police seize computers, data-storage devices and other electronics.
Proving who used a given seized device can be tricky if multiple people had access to it. Public records suggest that another person — a 30-year-old woman — may live at the Larkspur home.
Andersen has been under investigation since February, when a California law enforcement agency tipped off Douglas County investigators.
Colorado Springs police Sgt. Bill DeHart doesn’t know the specifics of the Andersen investigation, but he said there is a network of more than 60 agencies across the country that share information about Internet exploitation of children.
In child-porn cases, for example, one bust can lead authorities to a network of trading partners in other states and countries, said DeHart, who heads Colorado Springs’ Internet Crimes Against Children Unit and provides technical assistance to other Colorado agencies.
“Think of it as a narcotics trafficking network. There may be thousands of people out there right now who have never met each other,” DeHart said. “If we arrest someone in Colorado Springs and that person has been in contact with people across the United States, we’ll send out those leads.”
Activities investigated by crime unit
Officials with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit haven’t discussed why they’re investigating Denver Nuggets center Christopher “Birdman” Andersen. While Andersen has not been arrested or charged with a crime, these are the types of activities ICAC units typically investigate:
Enticement: Convincing a child to enter a secluded place for sexual contact.
Internet luring: Setting up a meeting with a child for sex through Internet chat or text messages.
Sexual exploitation: Asking a child to produce sexual images of themselves or possessing, publishing or trading those images.
Procurement of a child: Offering, arranging or making available a child for sexual exploitation.
Internet sexual exploitation: Convincing a child to perform sexual acts or reveal intimate parts over a computer or other data network.
Awful. Let’s just assume he’s guilty of nothing, and everything they found on his computer was some 30 year old chick’s that lived with him…just being associated with something like this… is horrible. How thrilled must PETA be, that his name, as their spokesman, is being thrown around with kiddie porn by everyone on the internet? Whoever is guilty disgusts me. Cases like this disgust me. Don’t want to talk or think about it because it makes me sick to my stomach. Hate it. Get these sickos to a doctor. Something is very, very wrong with their minds.
**update: Birdman may be the victim of extortion. read here**
-bp