Benjamin Morris, former interim executive director at Quad City Arts, was arrested on 30 felonies relating to child pornography Monday night.
ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — The former interim executive director of Quad City Arts was arrested on 30 felony child pornography charges.
33-year-old Benjamin Morris is accused of possessing and disseminating child pornography involving children under 13. Quad City Arts confirmed he served as interim executive director between April and June of this year. He served as operations manager before that.
Authorities believe some of the pornographic materials were created locally. Rock Island Police are still trying to identify local victims, according to the Rock Island County State’s Attorney.
The investigation started when Rock Island Police got a call last month from an organization called Predator Poachers Illinois.
On June 26, Morris was approached while working at Quad City Arts in downtown Rock island. For the next half hour, he talked about his online activity with who he believed was a 13-year-old boy.
But there wasn’t a 13-year-old. It was one of Aaron Snidle’s adult decoys helping him find people preying on children online. He’s run Predator Poachers Illinois for the past year and a half. In that time, his investigations have led to 50 arrests and 21 convictions. He said many more cases are working their way through the court system.
“Basically, the first sentence was sexual,” Snidle said.
In his interactions with the decoy, Snidle said Morris repeatedly asked for inappropriate pictures and videos. It was a short chat, “but there was enough to show that he was highly sexual with minors,” Snidle said.
That behavior told Snidle there was possibly child sexual assault material (CSAM) on Morris’ devices. So, Snidle and his cameraman drove from Marion, Illinois to Rock Island.
Part of Snidle’s technique for confronting suspected predators includes convincing them he’s bugged their phones. He acts friendly and says he wants to help them. Once the suspected predator admits to having CSAM on their device, Snidle tells them to put their phone into airplane mode to get rid of the “bug.”
“But it’s really to preserve the evidence so that he can’t go to another device and delete those accounts and all that out of his phone,” Snidle said.
The goal of these confrontations is to give police probable cause to seize and search devices. During his conversation with Morris, Snidle got just that.
“It’s not in my gallery, it’s all hidden away,” Morris told Snidle.
Snidle signaled to his cameraman to call the police. Morris was detained for questioning, and Snidle handed over his evidence.
“Before I leave, they have an SD card which has the entire conversations between the pred and my decoy,” Snidle said. It also contains the video of the confrontation and any research Snidle did to connect the suspected predator with the messages.
It started an investigation that ultimately led to Morris getting arrested Monday night.
“We’re grateful that they took this seriously, and they’re doing a fantastic job,” Snidle said.
After Rock Island Police got a search warrant for Morris’ phone, detectives extracted photos, videos and text threads showing or discussing child pornography. On March 16 alone, he’s accused of sending 15 videos including children who appeared under 13.
As for Morris’ time with Quad City Arts, the organization accepted his resignation after the June 26 confrontation. It said in part, “at this time, there is no indication that any Quad City Arts programs, participants, students, apprentices, or community members were involved in or affected by the alleged conduct.”
