Registered sex offender charged after hospital worker reports seeing child porn on his phone

DRIGGS — A registered sex offender has been charged after hospital staff reported explicit images involving children on the man’s phone.

Dennis Joe Empey, 67, faces felony possession and distribution of child porn charges, two felony child sexual battery charges through solicitation and two misdemeanors for disseminating materials to minors.

Empey is a registered sex offender, and according to the Idaho Sex Offender Registry, it stems from charges in Provo, Utah, from 1991.

A hospital worker contacted a detective with the Teton County Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 26 when Empey tried to show them a photo of a wound.

During this, the worker saw a photo when Empey was swiping through photos of a shirtless boy between 8 to 12 years old, but couldn’t see if the boy was naked. Empey swiped again, and the worker saw a blurry photo of the upper chest of a child.

On Jan. 15, two detectives went to interview Empey at his residence in Driggs.

There, the detectives read him his Miranda Rights and explained why they were there regarding the allegation made by the hospital worker.

The document states that Empey denied having such content on his phone, and the detectives asked if they could review it.

Empey agreed, and looking through a Facebook Messenger, the detective reported seeing a possible artificial intelligence-generated photo of two boys engaging in a sexual act.

The detective showed Empey the photo and asked if the children in the photo were juveniles, and the man agreed.

Empey continued to deny having anything to do with the photo, and it was from a group chat. Looking at the group chat, Empey had joined it on Jan. 10.

Empey’s phone was seized, and a search warrant was obtained for the data on the phone.

During the search of the phone, the detective located a video that was found in Empey’s Telegram messages that shows two boys engaging in sex. Another image that was found shows a boy exposing himself.

On his WhatsApp account, the detective found a conversation thread between Empey and two other individuals from other countries in which they informed Empey that they were under the age of 17.

The document states that in these conversations, in exchange for porn, he’d asked the individuals to send him nude photos of themselves.

In the conversations, Empey offers one of the individuals to be his “teacher.” The account Empey used contained false information and featured an AI-generated profile picture.

The conversations between the two individuals revolved around Empey telling them about sex, asking for nude photos, and, in one conversation, Empey sending a video of a man masturbating.

On May 8, the detectives interviewed Empey once again at his residence to further question him about the findings.

Regarding the first photo that detectives found, he said he had stumbled upon it and didn’t fully examine it. Empey remarked that he should have deleted the photo, just as he had with the others.

When shown a screenshot of the first video and the photo of the boy exposing himself, Empey said he doesn’t recognize them.

The detectives asked Empey about the conversations with the alleged 17-year-olds, and sending pornographic images and asking for nude photos; Empey said that was the standard thing that you do and that they asked for that all the time.

When informed that he was the one who had sent those messages, Empey said it was not right and not something he should have done.

The document states that Empey was asked if the alleged 17-year-olds he was talking with were indeed 17 years old. Empey answered that logically they probably were.

Empey is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing before Magistrate Judge Jason Walker at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 1.

Though Empey has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty. If he is found guilty, he faces up to 87 years in prison.

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