LV child-porn arrest part of global sting

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004 | 11:50 a.m.

The arrest of a Las Vegas church camp counselor last week came out of an international investigation aimed at sexual predators, federal and local officials said Tuesday.

Harold Shaw's arrest made him the first U.S. citizen from the Las Vegas Valley nabbed in the sting. About 50 foreigners with sexual offenses on their record were arrested locally and deported since the initiative began last July, officials said. There have been nearly 2,000 arrests nationwide as a result of the investigation, they said.

The trail to Shaw began with credit card payments to child pornography websites, authorities said. That led the federal government to seek a search warrant from local authorities earlier this month for 59-year-old Shaw's Las Vegas home, said Stephen Usiak, resident agent-in-charge for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department.

Evidence found at Shaw's home included links to a Belarus-based website called Regpay that charged people's credit cards for access to more than 50 child pornography websites worldwide, authorities said. Police also reported finding video cameras set up in a bedroom of the home and tapes of Shaw having sex with a minor.

Working with Metro Police, federal officials arrested Shaw and charged him with three counts of sexual assault of a minor under 14, one count of lewdness with a minor under 14 and two counts of use of a minor in producing pornography.

Authorities have identified the girl in the tape and are in contact with her family, said Sgt. Russell J. Shoemaker, of Metro's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Because Shaw worked at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints summer camp and was a gymnastics coach, officials are concerned that additional victims remain unidentified.

"It's important that we find those children, both for our sake and theirs," said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for the federal agency.

John Hanks, spokesman for the LDS church in the Las Vegas Valley, said authorities hadn't contacted him about the case. He also said families from the church have not contacted church leaders with any concerns.

Federal and local authorities are continuing the investigation linked to Regpay and have served at least a dozen more search warrants locally, Shoemaker said.

Federal authorities have dismantled the website and are prosecuting its "major players" on the East Coast, Kice said.

Nearly 2,000 people have been arrested nationwide in the initiative -- most of them immigrants who had some sort of sexual offense on their record, generally grounds for deportation. Forty-seven such cases have occurred locally, but Shaw's was the first involving an American, Kice said.

The effort is aimed at catching adults engaged in child prostitution, trafficking, pornography and sexual tourism, crimes that affect millions and generate billions of dollars worldwide, according to the immigrations and customs agency.

Kice called the initiative important to protecting children worldwide, and said authorities have made "some notable and disturbing arrests."

Shaw made his first appearance in court Tuesday before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis. His next court appearance will be a status check scheduled for Feb. 20. A defense attorney is expected to be appointed to his case at that time.

He is being held at the Clark County Detention Center with bail set at $400,000, jail officials said.