Former Heavenly employee pleads guilty to child porn charges

Former Heavenly Mountain Resort employee Stephan DeGraffenreid pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor.

He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison on each of the three counts.

The 26-year-old Gardnerville resident had been an employee of the resort's children's ski school. His Apple iPad, which contained child pornography on it, was found at Heavenly and turned over to authorities. On January 26, 2017, during the execution of a search warrant at DeGraffenreid’s residence, officers with the Northern Nevada Online Child Exploitation Task Force located a thumb drive that contained explicit images of children in a childcare facility restroom in Gardnerville. DeGraffenreid admitted to taking the sexually explicit photos of the children found on the thumb drive.

"We terminated Mr. DeGraffenreid from the Heavenly Ski Resort immediately upon learning of the investigation by the authorities," said Kevin Cooper, Senior Communications Manager for Heavenly at the time of DeGraffenreid's arrest. "We have no reason to believe that the alleged activity has any connection to Heavenly Ski Resort or its guests. The alleged activity is abhorrent to everything that our resort stands for and we remain available to cooperate with the authorities in their investigation, if requested."

No photos of children at Heavenly were found on DeGraffenreids devices.

The case was investigated by the Northern Nevada Child Exploitation Task Force, which is comprised of members of the FBI, the Reno Police Department, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, and the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office also assisted with the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shannon M. Bryant.

DeGraffenreid will be sentenced on November 29, 2017.