Court records show that a Walt Disney World Cast Member has been arrested on a child pornography charge on Thursday, with records also indicating that he posted photos of coworkers to an adult content social networking site, alongside their personal contact information, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
What’s Happening:
- An Investigation began last September after a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off the Orange County Sheriff’s Office about a potential child pornography case.
- Investigators discovered that Daniel Rivera, a cast member at Walt Disney World, had a file sharing account on the DropBox service containing child pornography and accessed it not only from his home, but from Walt Disney World computers.
- The account “contained two files showing children under 10 years of age in sex acts with adult men,” according to court records.
- Dropbox shared a log of IP addresses in which the account was accessed from July through September, with an affidavit pointing at both Rivera’s home and addresses that “implies the use was located within Disney office space or Disney property.”
- After linking the IP to his Winter Garden home, Investigators also went through his social media accounts, one of which reportedly showed an award he had received for 20 years of service at Walt Disney World.
- It was also this search that led to another social media site reportedly centered around discussion of sexual photos
- Rivera told investigators that he had also separately taken photos of his co-workers, some reportedly dressed as Disney characters, and posted them on a social media site that specializes in adult content alongside their personal information.
- Records indicate that his account on this site had 155 posts, “including several photos of young girls and women he claims he knows,” with many posts titles “indicative of an interest in young girls and theme parks.” The website was taken down in March of 2022.
- On Thursday, agents with the Department of Homeland Security, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office searched Rivera’s home and found a hard drive containing adult images, with Rivera telling investigators initially that he viewed and saved “less than 30 videos of child pornography, and that he digressed into looking for child pornography in the last year or two.”
- After being confronted with conflicting evidence, Rivera said he had been searching for, and obtaining, child pornography “about once a week for the last 10 years.”
- A statement from Disney reveals that Rivera has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the charges.