A 23-year-old former youth worker with the City of Scotts Valley faces two counts of child pornography in connection with nude photos of a 15-year-old girl.
Trevor Arriola, of Scotts Valley, has been released from the Santa Cruz County Jail on $10,000 bond following his arrest last week after a search of his home turned up evidence of that he had requested and received nude photos from a 15-year-old female, with whom he allegedly had a relationship via social media.
Arriola was arrested Oct. 6 on one misdemeanor charge of possession of child pornography and a second misdemeanor charge of solicitation and distribution of child pornography. Scotts Valley Police Lt. John Wilson said the possession charge could be upgraded to a felony, as the investigation is continuing.
Wilson and detectives served a search warrant on Oct. 6 at Arriola’s house following a nearly two-month investigation of complaints by a third party to city Parks and Recreation Department staff that the victim was involved in an online relationship with an older man. Wilson said the evidence obtained showed that Arriola had requested and received nude pictures of the victim.
“Arriola was interviewed at length by detectives and later booked at the County Jail,” said Wilson.
Arriola is a former City of Scotts Valley Parks and Recreation Aide, who police said befriended the victim a couple of years ago. Wilson said the Scotts Valley man later lost contact, then recently reconnected with the victim through social media.
“During that time, they established an online relationship, in which photos were requested, received, and exchanged with a third party,” said Wilson in a statement released on Tuesday, Oct.11. “There was no physical and/or sexual contact between Arriola and the victim. Their connection was through social media only.”
City Manager Jenny Haruyama confirmed that Arriola was hired as a youth aide by the Scotts Valley Parks and Recreation Summer and Afterschool Program in 2014, after submitting to extensive FBI and Department of Justice background checks via Livescan fingerprinting, with negative results. She said these background checks are a routine requirement of any city employee who comes into contact with children.
She said Arriola resigned from the city in August 2016 “in good standing.”
In this job, he worked with young people in the Parks and Recreation Summer and Afterschool program, a city-run program that is held at Scotts Valley school campuses.
Wilson said there appeared to be no connection between Arriola’s resignation from the city job and the police investigation that began the same month. He also said there was no evidence he used city computers to contact the girl.
Wilson said there was no evidence of improper relationships between Arriola and any other youngster, or that the recent involvement involved any other children.
“Let’s hope we got this one in time,” he said.
“The most important message I can send to parents is to monitor your children’s social media.”
In 2015, Scotts Valley schools hosted social media awareness sessions, warning of the dangers to young people of un-monitored social media.
