Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the case was dismissed without prejudice on Nov. 23, 2023.
PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man is scheduled for arraignment Friday in Clallam County Superior Court and is expected to be charged with child pornography after he was arrested Wednesday night at the culmination of an investigation that began in December 2020 with the Seattle Police Department.
Robert Dean Cuvelier, 38, formerly of Sequim and now a Port Angeles resident, remained Friday in the Clallam County jail in lieu of $20,000 bail for investigation of one count of first-degree possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, a Class B felony, and second-degree dealing in depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, a Class C felony.
The first has a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison and up to $20,000 in fines, and the second has a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
If Cuvelier is able to make bail, his conditions of release include no contact with children and not using any electronic devices.
The case was later dismissed without prejudice on Nov. 23, 2023.
In the probable cause statement filed in court April 4, Clallam County Sheriff’s Detective Brandon Stoppani summarized information provided by both the Seattle and Sequim police departments.
According to the probable cause statement, Dropbox Inc. reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that on or about Dec. 10, 2020, a user logged into an account that contained 86 files containing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
The user used Protonmail, an encrypted email service that operates out of Geneva, and went by the name “Jeff Labowski.” The Dropbox account was created on Sept. 14, 2020.
The probable cause statement listed 18 dates and times, plus the Internet Protocol addresses, where “Jeff Lebowski” logged into his Dropbox account. All 18 appeared to geolocate within or near the Seattle city limits, the affidavit stated.
This caused defense attorney Harry Gasnick to question whether any crimes actually occurred in Clallam County.
After a King County search warrant was issued on Jan. 13, 2021, Verizon provided on Sept. 19, 2021, subscriber information from Sept. 14, 2020, to Dec. 10, 2020, with a subscriber name of Robert D. Cuvelier of 113 Riverside Road in Sequim.
In February 2021, Dropbox provided Seattle police with 605 files, 523 of which were classified as child abuse material of female children between the ages of 0 and 10, and 82 that were classified as child exploitative.
The case then was referred to the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office since 113 Riverside Road is not within the Sequim city limits.
Matthew Roberson, the deputy prosecuting attorney, wrote in a motion to dismiss the case on Nov. 29, 2023, that the defense planned to seek to suppress Stoppani’s search warrant that was executed on Cuvelier’s phone because it was “overbroad.”
Roberson agreed that the search warrant wasn’t “particular enough as required by the Fourth Amendment,” the motion stated.
“As a result, evidence allegedly obtained from Defendant’s cell phone would be fruit of the poisonous tree and should be suppressed,” Roberson wrote in the motion.
Without the evidence from the cell phone linking Cuvelier to the Dropbox account, Roberson said he could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at brian.gawley@sound publishing.com.
