Lafayette man accused of posting child porn on Tumblr takes plea deal
Sep. 24—A Lafayette man accused of posting child pornography on Tumblr has accepted a plea deal in his case.
John Joseph Erikson, 40, pleaded guilty in Boulder district court Friday to sexual exploitation of a child, a Class 5 felony.
As part of the plea deal, attorneys said Erikson will be sentenced to sex offender intensive supervised probation, with the length of the probationary sentence to be determined by a judge.
While he will not serve any prison time, the judge will have the option of imposing a punitive jail sanction.
Erikson, who remains free on bond, is set for sentencing on Dec. 10.
According to an arrest affidavit, in June 2020 a detective with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office was assigned a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The tip indicated Tumblr reported a user had uploaded images containing possible child pornography to the site in April 2020. A detective determined there were 28 images associated with the account that appeared to be from a known Ukranian child pornography magazine.
The account's internet protocol address, or IP address, was traced back to Erikson's house in Lafayette, according to the affidavit.
Then in October, another user then tried to upload more images to Tumblr, and this account also traced back to Erikson.
In April 2021, detectives executed a search warrant at Erikson's house. Erikson was the only person found living at the address, and chose not to speak to detectives.
According to the affidavit, detectives seized a computer from the house and found more than 500 videos containing child pornography on the device.
