So, what do child pornography users charged here look like?

Thinking tattered T's and torn jeans? Try neck ties and college degrees.

As the number of charged child porn collectors climbs, investigators are learning more about their profiles — and how dangerous they are.

Offenders aren't always the stereotypically "dirty old men," local studies show. In many cases, collectors are established 9-to-5ers. They are educated professionals. Several have families.

But all of them keep a dark secret, including a local engineer, Brandon Eakman, who had one of the largest child porn collections ever prosecuted in Lancaster County.

Eakman, 25, was sentenced last week to county prison for having more than 13,000 photos and videos — meticulously sorted into catalogues.

"Everybody thought the world of Brandon. Everybody liked him," his attorney Cory Miller said. "But he had this side."

Eakman isn't the only trained white-collar worker recently caught collecting here.

Greg Nies was a former Lititz Borough councilman and served as the town's Santa Claus. Clyde Hoppert, a Manheim Township man, spent years in supervisor positions. Matthew Guillory, of Clay Township, was a successful salesman.

All were college-educated and were arrested and recently sentenced for having child porn.

"It's somewhat like drunk driving, in that it exists at all levels of society," Lancaster County Judge Dennis Reinaker said. "And that's a difficult thing to grasp and accept."

Local police and studies suggest the fascination with child porn is often more than curiosity.

"Some are violent sexual predators, others are not," said Richard B. MacDonald, a veteran local defense lawyer. "Some just like to look at it; others are on a mission to collect it."

Prosecutors believe that presents an important concern: can downloading lead to physical-contact crimes?

JUST LOOKING?

A recent national study held in high regard here indicates that less than 10 percent of convicted pornographers go on to be charged with contact crimes.

However, that study also suggests that the offenders simply weren't caught as often.

About half of the 201 surveyed child porn offenders admitted to contact crimes, according to a Canadian study lead by researcher Dr. Michael Seto. (Most research cited in local courts is Canadian, experts said.)

A local survey backs that up with "astounding" results, Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said.

The county's parole and probation department recently questioned 16 convicted child porn offenders.

Twelve of them, during polygraph examinations, admitted to sexual contact crimes. The offenders confessed to illegal contact with 63 victims in all.

Two of the offenders didn't agree to take the polygraph. That means 86 percent of those who did admitted to contact crimes.

"Their tendencies don't remain at just looking at the pictures," Reinaker said.

"Every sex offender has triggers," said Assistant District Attorney Karen Mansfield, who prosecutes many child porn cases here. "For some, pornography might be that trigger" to commit further crimes.

Skeptics suggested some of the surveyed offenders' contact crimes were committed prior to the child porn offenses.

Defense attorney James Gratton believes in a "hierarchy" of sex offenders, with child porn collectors being the least dangerous.

"Remember, in all the hype, that all sex offenders have among the lowest reported recidivist rates of any offenders," Gratton noted. "Theft and drug offenders are the highest."

MacDonald said child porn collectors come from all walks of life, making it difficult to predict whether just looking leads to more serious offenses.

"They don't have the same motives," he said.

The survey provided a demographic on local child porn addicts.

All of the offenders were white men.

More than half were married.

Average age at conviction: 43.

Seto, in his study, makes note of offenders' high intellect.

"Child pornography offenders are more intelligent and better educated as well, likely reflecting the fact that their crimes involved the use of computers and Internet technologies," he writes.

While many of them were successful in their careers, locals say, they often fell short on a social level.

"Porn watchers are often introverts, who simply can't make a connection with people around them," Gratton said.

"It is the dirty old men," MacDonald said, "but it's also young and middle-aged men. It's all over the board."

PAYING THE PRICE

The punishment for porn offenders also seems to vary.

MacDonald recently defended Carl Crocker Jr., who received a 4 1/2-to-20-year state prison sentence for having more than 18,000 photos and videos. Crocker bragged to police about his massive collection, the judge noted at sentencing.

It was believed to be the harshest sentence ever handed down here for an offender with strictly porn crimes.

Eakman, who kept a comparable collection, left court with a shorter county prison sentence of 9 to 23 months, plus 47 years of probation.

"It changes from courtroom to courtroom and state to state," MacDonald said. "You don't really know what the outcome is going to be."

MacDonald referenced a recent case in Florida where a man was sentenced to life without parole for collecting child porn.

Daniel Enrique Guevara Vilca, 26, had no prior criminal history. His attorney asked the sentencing judge how Vilca — who has no proven history of illegal physical contact — was treated so harshly. Life without parole is a typical sentence for first-degree murderers.

Miller said, aside from that rare case, prison might not be the toughest part of the sentence.

"The stigma attached to it is right up there with murderers," he said.

Local sentencing guidelines allow for probation on the first offense, granted the defendant has never been in trouble before.

The guidelines for first-timers rise to 3 to 12 months in jail for disseminating the material and 6 to 14 months for producing it.

Prosecutors often charge for each individual computer drive, and in some cases, each photo or video. Then, it's up to the judge to sentence consecutively or concurrently on the counts.

Stedman hopes for consecutive sentences in select cases.

"I have never been in favor of a volume discount for criminals, and certainly not for these twisted individuals," he said.

There were 302 charges in Eakman's case; the judge sentenced concurrently on most of them.

Reinaker said it's not about the number of counts; he's more concerned with the number of images and the nature of the material.

"It's also important how bad the pornography is," he said. "I never look at it, but I do go by the comments of the prosecutor about how bad it is."

MacDonald says he rarely looks at what his clients are charged with, but he understands how they find it.

"It's been explosive. It wasn't there years ago. It's all because of (the) Internet," MacDonald said, pointing to a spike in the past five years. "And if you look for it, you're going to find it."

bhambright@lnpnews.com