A St. Paul man was charged with 10 felonies after federal agents say he stockpiled child pornography and looked at it while he was at work.
Authorities searched William Thomas Costandine, Jr.’s home in late 2016 after learning that the 66-year-old had purchased a DVD depicting sexual images of minors that was manufactured in South Carolina, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court Thursday.
They found close to 200 DVDs, CDs and videotapes as well as a digital camera, 40 memory cards and two thumb drives containing more than 8,000 illegal images of children, charges say. Additional child pornography was reportedly found on a laptop computer Costandine kept inside a safe on his main floor.
During an interview with agents, Costandine said he obtained the images because he was attracted to children, the complaint said. He denied ever touching a child inappropriately and said he lived at his home on the 400 block of Bay Street alone.
The seized material was sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for review. The organization issued its final report on the content in March, which found that some 300 of the images Costandine possessed depicted child victims known to law enforcement, the complaint said.
Some of the images were viewed on a computer screen inside a room agents later determined to be Costandine’s workplace.
His employer was notified and agents confiscated his work computer for further analysis.
The criminal complaint did not say where Costandine works, and he could not be reached for comment.
No attorney was listed for him in court records.
Costandine was charged via warrant with 10 counts of possession of child pornography and is not yet in custody.
He has no prior criminal record in Minnesota.