By Ashley Gebb, Chico Enterprise-Record
A Chico man who works as a captain for the South Lake Tahoe Fire Department has been arrested on suspicion of child pornography.
Mark McLeod Wygant, 44, appeared in federal court Friday and is scheduled for preliminary examination Feb. 13, unless he is indicted earlier, which would change the appearance to arraignment, said Lauren Horwood, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Bond was not offered and he remains in custody at Sacramento County Jail.
An affidavit filed by FBI special agent Glenn G. Norling details the evidence in the investigation and states that when Wygant was interviewed Thursday, he admitted to surreptitiously placing a cellphone camera in a bathroom to record a nude minor victim for his sexual gratification and that he had purchased “spy cameras” online to record additional videos.
Wygant allegedly possessed a flash drive containing more than 5,000 images of child pornography along with more than 50 video files that depicted children nude and engaged in sexual intercourse and other sexual acts, the affidavit states. The allegations include possession and production of child pornography material depicting several girls, ranging from 4 to 13 years old at the time of filming.
Several of the videos appear to be of a known female minor, who has met with South Lake Tahoe police detectives, according to the affidavit. She would have been about 12 years old in 2011, when the videos are believed to have been made.
The videos depict the girl getting out of the shower, and allegedly show Wygant placing and concealing the recording device in a bathroom.
Wygant admitted to Norling to placing an iPhone 3 phone in a bathroom in the minor’s residence and purchasing at least four spy cameras on eBay to record additional videos, filming from multiple angles in the bathroom, according to the affidavit. He estimated that he had about 100 videos of similar recordings and had most recently recorded the victim a month ago, the video of which was saved on an external hard drive that has since been seized by law enforcement.