G Raymond 
New Braunfels police lieutenant Jacob Pullen has been arrested on a child pornography possession charge, stunning both his colleagues and neighbors.
“For us, we’re all shocked, saddened, and also embarrassed,” New Braunfels police chief Tom Wibert tells us. “We all share in the same reputation, so if one person does something bad, then publicly it can reflect on all of us.”
Pullen has been with NBPD since 2006, most recently serving as an administrative lieutenant, producing reports.
Texas Rangers took him into custody on Monday.
Pullen remains in Guadalupe County Jail on $50,000 bond. He has been placed on paid administrative leave, pending an indictment, says Wibert, who was notified about the investigation on Nov. 14 and has been fully cooperating with the Rangers.
Wibert described Pullen this way: “Dependable employee. Great record. And also a friend to many..”
At least some of his neighbors don’t regard him the same way, including one woman who described him as “not very friendly.”
A person who has lived across the street from the Pullen family for about a decade says she has never seen his wife Bonnie. Two other neighbors tell us they had never meet the Pullens, or either of their two teenage children.
Bonnie Pullen referred us to the family’s attorney today, who declined comment.
Jacob Pullen allegedly accessed child porn via the dark net, where users can find “a lot of information not available on traditional search engines,” according to FBI special agent Jim Thompson, who is an expert on child sexual exploitation crime. “Because it’s an anonymity network, it’s used by bad actors.
“If you’re engaged in this type of activity, you’re a very attractive target to a lot of different federal, state and local law enforcement (agencies),” he says.
While the dark net provides anonymity to users, “the problem with these anonymity networks is that you have to be perfect.” Thompson says. “Once you start making mistakes, or you get lazy, law enforcement has ways of detecting that type of activity.”
Even if a person comes across child porn unintentionally, viewing it is a crime.
“If you’re curious and go to the dark web and you happen to stumble upon one of these sites, that is unlawful activity,” says Thompson, who notes child porn arrests have included law enforcement officers, day care workers and teachers. “We’ve arrested all gamuts of society. We see it in all walks of life … everybody, all age groups.”
He points out some people might believe if they are simply viewing child porn, they are not harming anyone. But Thompson says that is completely false.
“They (children in the videos) are revictimized every time someone watches one of these images,” he says. “The act of looking at these images is considered by the courts of being a crime of violence.”
