Port EMT accused of uploading child porn while on the job

A 54-year-old man was charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court last week with uploading child pornography to an internet platform from the Port Washington Fire Station while he was working as an emergency medical technician in April.

Timothy G. Lund of New Holstein, who worked as a part-time EMT with the Port department until last week, faces one felony count of possession of child pornography.

According to a criminal complaint, on July 9, a special agent from the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation was assigned a case based on a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding a suspected child sexual abuse video sent to users on Kik, a messaging app that allows users to exchange messages, photos and videos, on April 15 or 16 from Port Washington.

Kik informed NCMEC that the person who uploaded the video did so from an IP address registered to the Port Washington Police Department under the user name emt5233, the complaint states. 

The video showed a pubescent male having sex with an early pubescent female child who had braces, according to the complaint.

The agent learned that the Port Washington police and fire departments share internet service and traced the Kik account used to upload the video to Lund, who worked a shift that began on April 15 and ended on April 16 — the time frame in which the video was uploaded, the complaint states.

In response to a subpoena, Kik released information about the content of Lund’s account, which included numerous adult pornographic images and videos and pictures and videos of Lund wearing Port Washington Fire Department clothing and on the grounds of the station, as well as the child porn video, according to the complaint.

On Tuesday, July 29, authorities interviewed Lund, who said he has been a Kik user for the last 10 years.  

Lund called the content on Kik “questionable” because some of the people shown in the images and videos are younger than 18. He said he had been told that if a girl shown in a photo or video has braces, she is younger than 18, adding he isn’t sure if that is accurate. He also said if he saw a female who had tattoos in a photo or video on Kik, he assumed she was 18 or older, the complaint states.

Lund told authorities he assumed the people in the photos and videos were at least 18 because websites should be monitoring their content, but then said he had recently been banned from Kik two times because his use of the app did not abide by “community standards.” He said his emt5233 Kik account, which was associated with the email address inspectyou1st@gmail.com, was banned less than three months earlier. He then created another account, which was banned within the last two weeks, according to the complaint. 

Lund said he currently belonged to two groups on Kik, “Petite Girls” and “Tiny or Average Girls,” adding that he had no way of knowing how old the people depicted in the images and videos shared in these groups were, the complaint states.

The last exchange he had with a person on Kik, Lund said, was the morning of the July 29 interview with authorities, when he exchanged messages with a girl who said she was 13. He said the exchange was not sexual in nature and he never talks about sex with Kik users younger than 18. Instead, they discuss topics such as cooking or gardening, he said.

When the special agent showed Lund a screen shot from the video he is accused of uploading, he admitted he had seen the girl before and had likely sent the video to another Kik user. He estimated her age to be 17, according to the complaint.

Lund admitted he is addicted to pornography and spends 12 to 15 hours a day viewing it on his phone, adding that he is not attracted to children and never preyed on them, the complaint states.

Port Washington Fire Chief Joe DeBoer said Lund resigned from the department last week.

During a July 30 court hearing, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain set Lund’s bail at $25,000 and ordered him not to have contact with anyone younger than 18 or the Port Washington fire and police stations and not to use or possess devices capable of accessing the internet.

Court records indicate Lund posted bail the next day and was released from jail.