Your tax dollars at work- FDLE inspector charged with having child porn

Some news out of Tallahassee. There are implications for Yahoo since the person charged was getting this from a yahoogroup thats been in existence since June. Does Yahoo monitor its groups at all?

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A Florida Department of Law Enforcement inspector arrested in a child-pornography case could mean more publicity problems for Yahoo!, the hugely popular Internet service.

Ray Meresse, 58, was charged Tuesday with multiple counts of possessing and distributing explicit photos of young girls - using his office computer. He allegedly told FDLE agents he traded through a Yahoo! online group that specialized in "petite" pictures.

The company was sued earlier this year in a similar case involving a porn-trading group, and it closed some of its chat rooms a month later amidst allegations that pedophiles might be using them to troll for kids.

The most recent trouble began in August when an FDLE computer tech discovered a file-sharing program running on an agency machine.

According to FDLE, the tech traced the program to Meresse's computer and found a single
image of adult pornography saved there. A few days later, an agent checked the computer and found another saved photo.

This time, it was a nude child - a girl, 12 or younger, according to Meresse's arrest report.

Agents questioned Meresse, and he told them he'd sent that photo and others to members of a Yahoo! group.

Yahoo! groups are Web pages that allow users to post messages to each other, send out group e-mails and trade information and photos. They're usually invitation-only and are used by everyone from knitting clubs to porn collectors.

Meresse admitted that he'd been concerned some of the pictures he traded may have been "a little too young," agents reported.

Agents also found other photos - including at least one of a girl believed to be under 14 - on his laptop, as well as disks and CDs from his office.

Meresse was booked into the Leon County Jail late Tuesday and released after posting $4,500 bail.

He did not return a call to his home seeking comment.

The Yahoo! site where Meresse allegedly traded was still up Tuesday, although it showed no activity for at least the last week. A call to the company's California headquarters was not returned Tuesday afternoon.

The home page of the site featured a photo of two nude girls who appeared to be in their teens.

The rest of the site was restricted to members - nearly 3,000 of them since it was created in June, according to the page.