A Drexel Hill man has been charged with nearly 200 counts involving the possession and creation of child sexual abuse material dating to at least 2017 after Springfield police seized his laptop from a Best Buy and performed a forensic investigation of its contents.
Thomas A. Baltaeff, 76, of the 1100 block of Bryan Street, is charged with 30 counts of photographing, filming or depicting child sex acts; 60 counts of possessing child sexual abuse material; 100 counts of criminal use of a communication facility; and one count of corruption of minors, all felonies.
According to an affidavit of probable cause for his arrest filed this week by Springfield Detective Eric Bergman and county Detective Ken Bellis, both with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force:
Springfield police received a call Sept. 12 from an employee at the Best Buy at 643 Baltimore Pike to report they had found CSAM on a customer’s laptop after he brought it in to be serviced.
The employee identified the customer as Baltaeff, who had dropped the computer off Sept. 10 to fix a booting issue. The employee transferred the files in the computer to a temporary hard drive, reinstalled Windows, then re-uploaded the files to the computer.
Upon doing so, they noticed several picture and video files on the desktop with odd names, which they described as, “This video is from the date and time that this kid pleasured me,” as well as photographs of naked minors and one of an “old hand full of wrinkles that was on a naked kid’s butt.”
The laptop and hard drive were seized and turned over to the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division. Bergman also secured video of Baltaeff dropping the laptop off at Best Buy.
Baltaeff returned to the Best Buy on the afternoon of Sept. 14 and was informed that Springfield Police had his computer. He went to the police station and spoke with Bergman and Sgt. Robert Nutley, informing them that he understood why it was seized.
“Baltaeff estimated that he has between 50-1500 photographs of naked boys between the ages of six and eighteen on his laptop,” according to the affidavit. “Baltaeff said he obtained some photographs from the internet, but that he also took some of the photographs himself. … Baltaeff said he uses the pictures and attaches them to fantasy stories, which were sexual in nature.”
A forensic examination of the laptop revealed approximately 1,500 images and 100 videos, some as long as 10 minutes.
Many show an adult male’s hand touching the child, or pulling their pants down or to the side to expose their genitalia. The children mostly appear to be asleep or otherwise unaware that they were being filmed. Baltaeff admitted to touching one child’s buttocks and thigh, but denied touching their penis.
The files date as far back as 2017 with titles including, “Pedophile Personified That’s Me” or “The Boy Satisfied Me Nicely.”
In some cases, Baltaeff’s penis is also exposed. He additionally described pulling his own pants down and snuggling with at least one alleged victim on two different occasions, but denied touching the boy with his penis.
Baltaeff described using the images and videos as inspiration for “fantasy stories.” There were more than 100 videos found on the laptop that fit that description.
Baltaeff was preliminarily arraigned before District Judge Michael Culp, who set bail at 10% of $500,000.
Baltaeff was remanded to the county jail in Concord after failing to post bail and is awaiting a preliminary hearing before Culp on Nov. 19.
No defense attorney was listed on electronic court records.