PORT ANGELES — A 34-year-old Sequim man has been charged with sexual exploitation of a minor for allegedly making a music video of a naked 6-year-old boy.
Charles David Gahimer will be arraigned Friday in Clallam County Superior Court.
He was being held Saturday in the Clallam County jail on $130,000 bail.
Sequim police allege that Gahimer, a registered sex offender, used a digital video camera to record the child dancing to music in Gahimer’s bedroom Tuesday.
Gahimer, who shared a residence with the alleged victim and other roommates, told police that the child removed his clothes to his underwear and eventually exposed his genitals to the camera, according to the certification for probable cause.
“Gahimer said that the ‘flashing’ made him uncomfortable so he stopped recording,” Officer Devin McBride wrote in the arrest report.
The child told police that Gahimer wanted to make a YouTube video and directed the boy to “rip off his clothes and dance around until the music stopped,” McBride said.
Gahimer told police that he had previously recorded the child while the boy was in a bathtub and that he used the Internet to access images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, court papers said.
Roommate’s report
Police were tipped by a roommate who reported seeing the topless boy “hurriedly buckling his pants” in Gahimer’s bedroom, according to the arrest report.
The woman ushered the boy into her own room and alerted the boy’s father, who phoned police from work.
Gahimer was arrested without incident Tuesday. He was charged Thursday in Clallam County Superior Court.
“A search warrant served on the suspect’s room yielded over a dozen pieces of digital evidence which will be forensically examined in the coming weeks,” Sequim Police Detective Sgt. Sean Madison said in a news release.
“As the investigation continues, additional charges are expected to be filed.”
Police said they believe that other people living in the house, including the boy’s father, did not know that Gahimer was a convicted sex offender.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
