Former daycare worker charged with child exploitation, 10 counts possession of child pornography

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. -- The Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office has filed formal criminal charges against 26-year-old Jamie Sherfick as of Nov. 22, following the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) receiving a cyber tip from Google Inc. on July 18 that an account in Sherfick's name uploaded some troubling videos.

Sherfick is charged with one count of Child Exploitation, a Level 4 Felony, and 10 counts of Possession of Child Pornography, a Level 5 Felony.

Court documents state Sherfick worked at Little People’s Daycare in Elkhart at one time.

The prosecutor's office reports detectives have no evidence at this time to indicate any physical abuse of children occurred at this daycare in connection with this investigation.

Anyone with information or concerns can contact the Elkhart Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at 574-295-7070 ext. 8328.

BACKGROUND

The following contains disturbing information.

Court documents state on July 18, the NCMEC received a cyber tip from Google Inc.

Google Inc. reported the user associated with Google account [email protected] had uploaded seven files. Google Inc. reported two of the files were visually identified as child pornography.

Documents state one picture depicts a female toddler, 3-4 years old, with her pants and pull-up diaper pulled down to her ankles exposing her genitals. Documents go on to state the video file depicts a female child around the age of 8, nude, engaging in sexual activity with an adult man.

Authorities say other files included were a picture of Sherfick Jr.'s Indiana Driver's License, and a separate photo showing Sherfick's face.

Documents state Google provided user information for the account, including the name Jamie Sherfick and three verified phone numbers to authorities, who say they also located a photo of Sherfick wearing an apron with the name Little People Daycare.

NCMEC's information indicated that Sherfick was working at the Little People Daycare in Elkhart.

A search warrant was drafted by the St. Joseph County Police Department for Sherfick's person and address in Osceola and served on July 19. The search warrant authorized the search and seizure of electronic devices under Sherfick's control.

This resulted in one cell phone being taken off of his person and two other cell phones found in his residence.

Court documents state Sherfick was interviewed by a St. Joseph County Police Detective on July 19, at the Elkhart Police Department.

The Probable Cause Affidavit states Sherfick told the detective he has worked at the Little People's Daycare for about a year. Sherfick also stated his email address is [email protected] and this is his main email address.

Sherfick said he uses Google to back his phone up to a cloud storage, that he owns a Samsung cell phone, and that he took the photo of his driver's license that was backed up in the Google account.

Authorities say when shown the photo of the naked toddler, with her private part censored, from daycare, Sherfick initially stated he didn't remember taking a picture like that but that the picture could be Witness 1 or Witness 2 because he used to change them.

At one point, documents state Sherfick said, "I took the picture. Oh, I didn't take, I don't even know if I took the picture, but I, if I took a picture, it would be to show my boss."

Prior to this statement, authorities say Sherfick said if he did take the picture, it would be because he noticed abuse or something. However, documents state it was confirmed with the owner of Little People's Daycare that Sherfick never reported any possible abuse or showed her a picture he took at the daycare.

When the detective asked Sherfick if he has ever taken any pictures like that before, he stated, “I, I have not, but only because I was talking to someone about it and, you know, it said that you could get in trouble."

Documents state Sherfick then said, "I probably snapped the picture meant to tell about a rash or something," but documents state he admitted he didn't tell anyone he took the picture.

The detective then asked Sherfick if he could look through his cell phone and if he could provide the passcode for his phone.

Documents state that's when Sherfick said he would have to talk to a lawyer because "regardless of the reason it would be on that, I would get charged for it."

A second detective interviewed Sherfick that same day, during which Sherfick admitted he does drugs and gets online for hours and looks up porn.

Authorities say Sherfick also admitted he goes to the teen category of porn and admits that sites with younger stuff could have come up. Documents state Sherfick said, “You know, I get, I get really hot and talk to people in chat rooms."

The three seized cell phones were sent to the Indiana State Police Lab Fort Wayne for data extractions.

On Nov. 13, authorities received a hard drive from the Elkhart Police Department Evidence Unit containing the extractions from the cell phones. A detective then began reviewing the data on Nov. 14.

The detective reviewing the data described what he observed as "copious amounts of child pornography."

According to the examiner report from the ISP Lab, around 70 items of possible Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) were found on one of the cell phones, and another 140 on another cell phone.

Authorities say one video file found on the phone was of an infant being bathed in a kitchen sink, the infant is naked, and his penis is displayed a few times in the video. A voice that sounds like Sherfick's voice is heard in the background.

Documents state on Nov. 18, a detective performed a manual search of one of the seized cell phones.

The detective said in the images app on the cell phone were photographs of Sherfick and the children in the daycare.

On the Telegram app contained within the cell phone, the detective reportedly located several conversations concerning the exchange of CSAM.

In several of these messages, the owner of the phone, using the name Jamie Fish, is requesting chat contacts to join his group and posts the link to this group.

Court documents state in several of these messages, the owner of the phone, using the name Jamie Fish, is requesting chat contacts to join his group and posts the link to this group.

Documents state the group is titled "Little Lovers" and the owner is Jamie Fish.

In a conversation with user MZY 090, Jamie Fish, writes "I like preteen lesbian" and "Pedomom too with daughter."

Documents state in a conversation with user Vanessa Beauti on July 17, Jamie Fish writes "Hey, I heard you got video I'm willing to trade," and then requests a sample. Jamie Fish then writes, "I like Lesbian KidXKid or pedo mom with daughter."

On Nov. 19, Sherfick came into EPD and was interviewed again.

During this interview, documents state Sherfick denied ever producing or creating the child pornography that he had in the Telegram link to the "Little Lovers" page.

When asked about uploading other files into the account, Sherfick is said to have remained silent.

Authorities say Sherfick again admitted to taking the photo of the 3–4-year-old female child at the daycare without any clothes on and stated that, "It should not have been taken."

Sherfick then stated he thought he had deleted the photo.

Sherfick was then placed under arrest and taken to the Elkhart County Jail where he was booked in for Child Exploitation and Possession of Child Pornography.