Scottsdale man accused of downloading images, video that depict sexual acts involving minors

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Austin Bretz

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Scottsdale Police officials say they have arrested a man for allegedly downloading video featuring sexual misconduct involving children.

According to court documents we obtained, 21-year-old Austin Timothy Bretz was arrested at his home in Scottsdale on May 16. An investigation into Bretz began on May 14, when a computer repair store owner contacted police to report that his staff members possibly located child pornography on a computer that was brought into the store the day before for repairs.

"While conducting the repairs, the computer repair technician located several file names that were alarming and led them to believe that the computer contained child sexual abuse material (CSAM)," read a portion of the court documents.

Police listed a number of file names in the court documents that contain graphic description of the allegedly illegal acts that were being committed.

"Detectives immediately recognized file names such as these to be consistent with multimedia file content containing CSAM," read a portion of the court documents.

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Eventually, officials served a search warrant at Bretz's home, where they found hundreds of images and videos containing CSAM on a flash drive. The flash drive was reportedly found concealed inside a Star Wars Lego sculpture.

Court documents provided graphic details on some of the materials on the flash drive.

Bretz, officials say, confirmed that his computer was the one that was reported to police, but when he was confronted about the CSAM, he suggested that he had a virus that downloaded questionable content.

"Bretz ultimately admitted he had a 'fetish' and a ‘curiousity’ into viewing CSAM and that he had been downloading and viewing it for at least the last month." investigators said, in court documents. "Bretz said he downloads the material from a tor browser (dark web) and has also obtained the content through Discord."

According to court documents, a judge has set a Secured Appearance Bond of $25,000 for Bretz, and should he make bond, he will be required to undergo electronic monitoring. Among other restrictions, a judge has banned Bretz from accessing the internet through any electronic means, except to take part and classes and do assignments from Rio Salado College.