Sex offender arrested on child pornography charges in South Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Nicholas A. Rumble, a 30-year-old man from South Lake Tahoe, has been arrested after a year-long investigation into allegations of possession of child pornography.

Officers from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) tracked Rumble via his ankle monitor to the Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless Warm Room on Thursday, April 9 where he was arrested on an outstanding warrant.

SLTPD detectives and a parole agent from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation originally met with Rumble at his family's home in South Lake Tahoe on March 28, 2019. At the time, Rumble was on parole for a prior child pornography case and ordered to wear an ankle bracelet. During the parole search, detectives said they found that Rumble had been viewing and downloading possible child pornography. Detectives seized multiple electronic devices from his residence and initiated the investigation. During the investigation, it was discovered that Rumble had possessed thousands of images and several hundred were of suspected child pornography. Those images were stored on his Google Drive, tablets and his cellular devices. The images were of children as young a toddler to early adulthood.

Detectives had to go through those images during the past year as part of their investigation. On April 9, the El Dorado County Superior Court issued a $75,000 warrant for Rumble under the charges for 311.11(b) California Penal Code for possession of child pornography with a prior.

Rumble was located by using his electronic ankle monitoring bracelet.

He is currently in the El Dorado County Jail.

Besides the child pornography charges, Rumble also had an outstanding warrant for grand theft and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is being held on a total bail of $85,000.