PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. – A civilian contractor who was working as a prisoner transporter at the Putnam County Jail now finds himself behind bars after he was accused of downloading child pornography inside the jail.
According to investigators, Media Labs, the company that owns the Kik Messenger app, tipped off the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office to inform the agency that someone was accessing child porn within the Sheriff’s Office. Detectives later realized Wi-Fi was being used within the Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators told News4JAX that they learned Brandon Smolinski, 36, had been using the Sheriff’s Office Wi-Fi on his phone to download child porn while working as a civilian contractor inside the jail.
According to a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, Smolinski’s job was transporting jail prisoners.
Investigators said he used the Sheriff’s Office’s internal Wi-Fi password to download and share the material.
“We could see his device attached to our Wi-Fi, so because of that technology and because of the technology our federal partners we were able to use, there was no question who was responsible for this behavior,” Wells said.
Smolinski now faces three counts of possessing child pornography, three counts of transmitting child pornography and three counts of using a cellphone to download child pornography.
In an abundance of caution, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office had Smolinski transported to the St. Johns County Jail for his safety and also because it said he is too familiar with Putnam County Jail procedures. He was booked into the St. Johns County jail on Friday and remained as of Wednesday, jail records show.
According to detectives, Smolinski told investigators that he was sharing images of child porn with a woman he knows on Kik.
Detectives said the evidence of child porn featured images of children from overseas.