SEQUIM — Two Sequim-area residents were arrested on investigation of child pornography charges, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.
Gail E. Smith who is also known as Gail E. Rees, 39, was arrested Saturday and Russell J. Rees, 34, was arrested Tuesday on investigation of charges related to a 9-year-old girl.
Smith was arrested on investigation of sending or bringing into the state pictures of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, incest, sexual exploitation of a minor with elements of a crime and first-degree child molestation, according to the Clallam County jail logs.
Rees was arrested on investigation of first-degree child molestation, incest and rape of a child in the first degree, according to the Clallam County jail logs.
Incest, according to state law, is when sexual intercourse is performed with someone who is known to be biologically related or with an adopted child or stepchild.
Neither has been formally arraigned in Clallam County Superior Court.
The alleged victim, a 9-year-old girl, is in the custody of Child Protective Services, Clallam County Det. Sgt. Lyman Moores said.
Rees and Smith were previously married and were living separately pending their divorce becoming final, he said.
Rees lives in Sequim and Smith near Discovery Bay.
Both are in custody at Clallam County jail.
Rees is being held in lieu of $100,250 bail, and bail has not yet been set for Smith.
Moores said he began investigating Rees in November 2008 and, through a search warrant, collected his computer along with several CDs.
“When we watched the material on the discs, she [Smith] was on them, so we began investigating her as well and got a search warrant and confiscated her computer as well,” Moores said.
The discs that detectives found showed Smith, the 9-year-old and another unidentified female in sexually explicit acts, according to the sheriff’s office.
The other female is believed to be an adult, and detectives are continuing to investigate who she is, Moores said.
“Detectives believe an Internet Web camera located in Gail Rees’ home was used to transmit child pornographic images of Gail Rees and the 9-year-old . . . to a man in Georgia,” Moores stated in a news release.
Moores said the FBI has been contacted and will meet with him and other detectives on Thursday about the case in relation to the man in Georgia.
He did not identify that man.
Smith told detectives that she had known the man in Georgia was a predator and was trying to obtain information so that he could be caught, Moores said.
Clallam County Detectives are still investigating and will have the computers forensically examined for further evidence of child pornography, Moores said.
__________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@ peninsuladailynews.com.
