Daycare worker faces child pornography charges

ELKHART — Police say a man accused of sharing “a copious amount” of sexually explicit photos and videos online was working at a day care at the time.

Jamie Sherfick, 26, faces one count of child exploitation, a Level 4 felony, and 10 counts of possession of child pornography, a Level 5 felony, following his arrest Tuesday. Police said they found numerous files on their devices, as well as discussions about bartering.

He was held at the Elkhart County Department of Corrections on $100,000 bail.

According to court documents:

Elkhart police received information in July from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which reported that Google had found child pornography files uploaded to a Gmail user’s account. One was a photo of a toddler with his pants and diaper pulled down, and the other was a video of an adult engaging in sexual activity with a child.

Other files uploaded included a picture of Sherfick’s Indiana driver’s license and a photo of her wearing an apron with the daycare name on it, according to police. Google provided Sherfick’s name and three cell phone numbers associated with the account.

A search warrant was obtained to examine Sherfick’s electronic devices, and police seized three cell phones. The phones were sent to the Indiana State Police Laboratory in Fort Wayne for data extraction.

Police claimed 140 files depicting possible child sexual abuse were found on one phone, while another 70 files were found on another device. Police detailed only a few dozen of the hundreds of sexually explicit photos and videos featuring children and adults in court documents supporting Sherfick’s arrest.

The third call contained photos of Sherfick and children at the daycare, as well as Telegram app conversations about trading child porn files, according to police.

Police interviewed Sherfick in July and again on Tuesday. During the first interview, he admitted working at a daycare and confirmed his Gmail address, as well as looking at “teen” porn online, according to police.

He initially refused to take the first photo of a young child police found, then allegedly said he may have done so to show signs of abuse or a diaper rash. Police said the daycare owner confirmed Sherfick never shared any concerns with him or showed him any photos.

In a recent interview, police said Sherfick denied creating any child porn shared via Telegram but did not respond when asked if he had uploaded files to the account. He also admitted that he took the nursery photo and claimed that he said “It shouldn’t have been taken” and thought he deleted it.