A Liberty Township man who the Indiana State Police said told his girlfriend to molest a Chesterton boy and record the molestation has been booked into the Porter County Jail on 23 felony counts, the Porter County Sheriff’s Police said.

Ryan Roy Schroeder, 26, of 150 Johnson Drive—who is currently enlisted in the U.S. Navy—was taken into custody at 10 a.m. Thursday by the PCSP.

The charges:

•Aiding in child molesting, six counts, five of them Class A felonies punishable by a term of 20 to 50 years, one a Class C felony punishable by a term of two to eight years.

•Aiding in child exploitation, seven counts, a Class C felony.

•Possession of child pornography, seven counts, a Class D felony punishable by a term of six months to three years.

•Aiding in voyeurism, two counts, a Class D felony.

•Aiding in theft, one count, a Class D felony.

The ISP’s original investigation began on Oct. 24, when investigators came into possession of 39 images and two videos of a woman later identified as Tara Tryon, 21, of Wanatah, molesting a Chesterton boy. Tryon was subsequently charged with five counts of child molesting.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed by ISP Det. Chris Campione, in an interview on Jan. 13, 2012, Tryon advised investigators that Schroeder—whom she’d started dating in January 2010 after meeting him at a Chesterton restaurant—“pressured” her to take pictures of herself and a Chesterton boy she was baby-sitting and threatened to leave her if she did not.

“Via texts, Schroeder would direct Tara what to do with (the boy),” Campione stated in his affidavit. “He wanted her to begin with the boy as he was younger and wouldn’t talk. He would specifically state what he wanted to see Tara do.”

Schroeder, for his part, in an interview with U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Jacksonville, Fla., “wanted investigators to believe that Tara Tryon had sent him the photographs of her molesting (the boy) and that this was completely unsolicited by him,” Campione stated. “He indicated shock and disgust with respect to the acts as well as the images of the acts.”

Under further questioning, however, Schroeder advised investigators that “maybe accidentally” he “told Tara (Tryon) to take these photos,” Campione stated.

A forensic search of Schroeder’s external hard drive in his barracks yielded “multiple images of child pornography, including all of the images of Tara Tryon molesting (the boy),” Campione stated. “In addition, there were images of other children found and images of adults that appear to be unaware that their picture was being taken.”

“It was later learned that, despite NCIS’s request, and despite the admission of Schroeder that he possessed the child pornography, and despite the fact that the child pornography was found on his external hard drive in his barracks on naval property, the United States Navy was not going to charge Schroeder at this time,” Campione stated.

Because the U.S. Navy refused to prosecute, Campione noted, the ISP obtained a copy of the “Tara” folder on Schroeder’s hard drive “for action against Schroeder as requested by the authorities in Porter County.”

Schroeder was extradited earlier this month from Jacksonville. Investigators have said that he was not in the U.S. Navy at the time when Tryon said that she molested the Chesterton boy at his behest.

Posted 2/14/2012