20 December 2022- A Chambersburg man is behind bars today after allegedly admitting to police that he had child pornography on his phone. Malik Racil Rodgers is charged with felony illegal use of a communications device and felony child pornography and is behind bars in Franklin County Corrections on $25,000 bail.
On June 8th of this year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip from Snapchat that a user on the platform had saved, shared, or uploaded five files that were flagged as apparent child pornography. The data from that user, with the username malikrodgers16, was passed along to PSP. The IP address associated with that user at that time was found to be in Chambersburg with a Comcast ISP. Finding Malik Rodgers listed as having a number of other run ins with the PSP, a warrant was issued to search the home. Rodgers was listed as living in a home on New Franklin Road by Franklin County Adult Probation.
On October 27th, a search warrant was issued for the home and Rodgers was interviewed by Pennsylvania State Police that day. During the interview, Rodgers allegedly said that he lived with his grandparents at the home and that he regularly uses Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. Allegedly confirming a series of emails and contacts, Rodgers also allegedly confirmed that he used his grandparents Comcast internet and that neither of them used Snapchat.
When confronted with the fact the warrant was being investigated by as child sexual exploitation, Rodgers allegedly said that he had seen child pornography but it was only after he let a friend borrow his phone. Rodgers also said that there probably would be child pornography still on his phone, but he allegedly said that he started deleting files once he found them. Additionally, Rodgers also allegedly said he paid someone for a Mega account, which contained a number of child pornography files. A search warrant was carried out on Rodgers’ devices, with investigators allegedly finding 33 images of child pornography.
Rodgers is behind bars on $25,000 bail. His preliminary hearing is set for December 27th.
Sources: Docket Number: MJ-39307-CR-0000284-2022, Incident Number: PA 2022-1362749
