The possession-of-child pornography charge against a Chantilly man has been sent to the grand jury. He is Steve Franklin Garrison, 53, of 4312 Poplar Branch Drive. He was arrested Oct. 6 by the Northern Virginia-Washington, D.C., Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
A HUSBAND and father of three, he had been employed as a building inspector by Fairfax County since January 1998, but resigned from his job four days after his arrest.
Acting on information provided by Maryland Police Sgt. David Biser — a detective with the Combined County Investigative Unit in Cumberland, Md., — the Task Force executed a search warrant, Oct. 6 at 9:25 p.m., at Garrison's home and seized 26 CDs and a Hewlett/Packard computer.
In the affidavit for that search warrant, Biser wrote that a 19-year-old woman who'd reportedly met Garrison on Internet chat rooms said she'd had a sexual relationship with him. The document also stated that she filed a child-pornography complaint against Garrison in Maryland.
The woman reported that “Garrison has been bringing videos of a pornographic nature with him [to the hotel where they met],” wrote the sergeant. He also stated that the children in the videos were allegedly as young as 6 or 7 months old, and the woman “was upset that Garrison was looking at such young children in pornographic settings.”
Biser noted, as well, that a "quick review" of several compact discs Garrison had reportedly left with her — and that she'd turned over to the police — allegedly confirmed what she'd said about their content. Wrote the sergeant: "The images portrayed children, infants in some videos, engaged in a variety of sexual activity with adult persons."
The Chantilly man appeared last Tuesday, Feb. 7, in General District Court. At that time, Judge Mark Simmons certified the charge against him to the grand jury for possible indictment. If convicted, Garrison could receive a possible maximum of five years in prison.