Man picks up new 'child porn' case right after making deal in old one
Izaiah Temple was arrested in Berkeley the day after taking a plea deal in his last Berkeley case involving child sexual abuse material.
A man who had just agreed to a plea deal in his last child pornography case is already facing new charges after Berkeley police found him with more than 600 explicit images Saturday, court papers show.
Some of the new child sexual abuse material depicted minors under 12, police said in charging papers.
Officers said they also found more than a dozen child pornography videos during the recent investigation.
Berkeley police initially arrested 26-year-old Izaiah Temple (no address) in the 2200 block of McKinley Avenue on Saturday shortly after 7 a.m.
Izaiah Temple. BPD
Police wrote that Temple had been loitering on private property, banging on doors and peering into a vehicle, prompting the call for service.
A witness also saw Temple pull down his pants on private property, according to court papers.
Berkeley police detained Temple on suspicion of prowling and found him in possession of a cellphone, tablet and flash drive, which police later searched in line with Temple's release terms.
BPD also noted that Temple had been found "down the block from an elementary school" despite a 100-yard stay-away order from unattended minors.
Temple "became nervous" when officers asked if they would find anything problematic on his phone, BPD wrote. It soon became clear why.
An officer who reviewed the phone found "numerous web browser tabs open to websites containing explicit material that appeared to be child pornography or material related to the search term - 'preteen,'" according to charging papers.
Police said they also found child sexual abuse material in the Kik messaging app, where Temple's profile included the description, "i am a creepy old man who wants a submissive child slave for my pleasure."
Police wrote that Temple also exchanged videos and images of child pornography with at least two people through the Kik app.
Officers also found numerous videos and photos depicting minors in Temple's Google Photos account, BPD wrote.
On Tuesday, the Alameda County DA's office charged Temple with possession of more than 600 images of child pornography and distributing child pornography, both felonies, as well as prowling and disobeying a court order, both misdemeanors.
He is set for arraignment on the new case Wednesday before Judge Elena Condes.
Emilie Raguso
The Alameda County DA's office had just charged Temple in December with one felony count of possessing or distributing explicit matter depicting a minor.
In that case, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force had alerted Berkeley police about a photograph uploaded to Facebook in November that showed a girl "posing in a sexual manner," according to charging papers. The investigation also turned up a second explicit image of a different girl, police wrote.
After that arrest, Temple refused to show up for five court dates in December so he could be arraigned.
When he appeared for the sixth date, on Dec. 30, the defense asked Judge Elena Condes to release Temple on his own recognizance, which she granted over the prosecution's objection, according to court records.
That day, Condes ordered Temple to appear in court for future hearings, turn over his passwords and "not possess any child pornography."
Temple was supposed to have his preliminary hearing in that case last Thursday so a judge could review key evidence to determine if the case should proceed to trial.
But, according to court records, Temple refused to show up.
The hearing was postponed to the next day, Friday, with a different judge signing an order to bring him in by force if Temple again refused.
According to court papers, Temple did show up for court Friday where the attorneys announced a plea deal: two years of felony probation with a five-way search clause in exchange for a plea to one count of having been an accessory and one count of distribution of sexual imagery, more commonly known as "revenge porn."
(The new charges are legally classified as "lesser related" violations but are not the crimes Temple was originally charged with.)
On Friday, Temple agreed to the plea deal and was ordered to return to court in April for sentencing.
"The final point is this," Judge Thomas Stevens told him as he wished him luck, according to a transcript reviewed by The Scanner. "I'm ordering you to be released on this case…. Report to probation, do not commit a crime between now and your sentencing date, and you must show up for sentencing on April 8th."
Stevens asked Temple if he understood the rules, and Temple said he did.
The next morning, police arrested him in Berkeley and found the explicit material on his devices, according to court papers.
As of publication time, Temple remains in custody at Santa Rita Jail. No bail amount was listed.
