Man allegedly distributed child pornography at Bend daycare

A Bend man allegedly distributed child pornography online from his home, which also served as a daycare, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff's Office detectives discovered in March that child pornography was being distributed from a computer at a Bend home, the sergeant said. Jason Wall, a sheriff's spokesman, said in a news release Friday.

On Thursday, authorities determined the home was also God's Kids daycare, so local, state and federal agencies immediately searched the home on Burnside Avenue and arrested Jack Bergeron Jr., 61, Wall said. Bergeron owns the home in which the daycare operated, according to Deschutes County land records.

“It was all hands on deck to execute immediately,” said Detective Sgt. Thomas Lilienthal told the Bulletin.

Detectives have no evidence at this time that the children at the daycare were victims of the alleged crimes. But detectives are contacting parents and encouraging them to ask any questions or concerns at 541-693-6911 to be connected with the Sheriff's Office's Internet Crimes Against Children team.

Collect evidence

Homeland Security Investigations, a law enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was able to connect directly to the computer involved in the investigation in March, and the sheriff's office collected two months of evidence, Wall said.

Bergeron allegedly distributed and accessed materials from a computer in the home daycare. It reportedly used a peer-to-peer network called BitTorrent, which allows users to transfer files and communicate without the need for a separate server or server software.

“Due to the significantly increased risk of Bergeron’s access to the children,” law enforcement immediately searched Bergeron’s home, Wall said.

He was charged Friday in Deschutes County Circuit Court with 11 counts of inciting child sexual abuse in the first degree, 11 counts of inciting child sexual abuse in the second degree and one charge of inciting the sexual assault of an animal.

The charges allege that Bergeron accessed sexually explicit videos depicting children with the intent to distribute them, regardless of whether the videos showed child abuse. He also allegedly possessed a recording of a person engaging in sexual conduct with an animal, according to the charges.

Daycares in Bend

God's Kids Daycare is a registered family child care program that was last inspected by state officials in October, according to state records.

Bergeron and his wife operated the daycare and he helped with care, Lilienthal said.

Bergeron's wife, Jean Bergeron, reached by phone Friday, said her world had been turned upside down. She said she was working with licensing and investigators and declined to comment further.

The daycare, which is licensed by the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, had an ongoing noncompliance violation as of April 2022 for an adult living in the home who had not passed a background check. It is likely that this person is not Bergeron, according to the department's child safety records.

The state agency also validated a complaint against the daycare in 2021 after a provider became angry and yelled at a child, records show.

Another complaint filed in 2019 said a daycare substitute “patted the buttocks of a daycare child” in violation of a rule prohibiting the use of corporal punishment.

Bergeron was booked into the Deschutes County Jail around 2:30 p.m. Thursday. He remained there Friday without bail.

—Anna Kaminski, Bend Bulletin, 541-633-2160, [email protected]