WASHBURN COUNTY -- A Spooner, WI man who is facing charges of Possession of Child P*rnography has been found competent to stand trial.

Public record indicates that Garry Lyga, of Spooner, WI, appeared in Washburn County Circuit Court today, August 23, 2017. In June of 2017, Lyga's defense attorney requested a competency evaluation for Lyga.

Based on the findings of that competency evaluation, Lyga has been found substantially competent to go forward with a trial on his charges.

Lyga is facing 10 counts of Class D Felony Possession of Child P*rnography following an investigation by the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation in which Google flagged more than 10 files uploaded by a Google User Account which was later identified as belonging to Lyga. According to the criminal complaint filed in Washburn County Circuit Court against Lyga, these images were flagged because they were found to be images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Lyga allegedly told investigators that he knew it was illegal to possess or share images such as these. He also reportedly admitted to investigators that he had started looking at such images up to 10 years ago.

Pursuant to the direction of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, as found in Supreme Court Rule 20:3.6, Trial Publicly, you are advised that a charge is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

**Previous Post**

Competency Evaluation Ordered for Spooner Man Charged with Possession of Child P*rn

Wednesday, June 14, 2017 | by Ben Dryden

The Court has ordered that a competency evaluation is to be completed for a Spooner man facing charges of possession of child p*rnography.

DrydenWire.com reported on April 12, 2017, that Garry Lyga of Spooner, WI has been charged with ten Counts of Possession of Child P*rnography are filed in Washburn County Circuit Court against Garry Lyga. These charges are Class D Felony offenses with a maximum sentence on each count of 25 years confinement in state prison or a maximum fine of $100,000 or both, as well as a $500 surcharge for each image possessed (the total number of images to be determined by the court based on the evidence associated with the charges).

Public record shows that on June 13, 2017, the Court ordered that competency evaluation be conducted on Lyga.

No due date for the competency evaluation is listed on public record. The complaint filed against Lyga states that a Special Agent for DCI received information early in March of 2017 that Google had flagged more than 10 files uploaded in January of 2017 by a Google user. These files were provided to DCI by Google because they were found to be images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The Google user account identified was reportedly linked to Lyga by investigators.

The criminal complaint also states that Lyga admitted to investigators that his age preference is females aged between 8 and 14 years of age and that he started looking at such images as much as 10 years ago. He also allegedly told investigators that he knew it was illegal to possess or share such images.

***Previous Post***

Spooner Man Charged with Possession of Child P*rnography

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 | by Ben Dryden

A man from Spooner, WI has been charged in Washburn County Circuit Court with Possession of Child P*rnography following an investigation by the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI).

According to the criminal complaint, a Special Agent for DCI received information early in March of 2017 that Google had flagged more than 10 files uploaded in January of 2017 by a Google user. These files were provided to DCI by Google because they were found to be images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The investigation by DCI revealed that the owner of the Google user account linked to these files was Garry Lyga. An account on the dating website Plenty of Fish was also found to be linked to the same Google user account. On this dating profile, Lyga identified himself as having recently moved to Spooner, WI. Further investigation by DCI into the IP address associated with these uploads led agents to an address in Spooner, WI where Lyga was residing.

A search warrant was executed at the residence on March 10, 2017, and the criminal complaint states that agents seized multiple items as evidence including a hard drive located in Garry Lyga's computer, an Amazon Kindle, a Polaroid Tablet, a cell phone, and multiple SD card/reader file storage devices.

When DCI agents conducted a forensic review of the hard drive seized from the residence, they located numerous contraband files containing images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The criminal complaint continues stating that during an interview of Lyga, he told DCI Special Agents that he moved to Spooner in December of 2015 from Minnesota. Lyga confirmed that he uses the dating site Plenty of Fish and that his username is Gklyga77. Lyga told investigators that he also has used the site KIK to talk with people and that other users would send him links to pornography. Lyga further confirmed to agents that he was the owner of the Google user account which had been flagged by Google and that he knew that account had been 'shut down' because he had been sharing images of “underage naked girls” with another person. He also told investigators that he had stored “a lot” of those images on the Polaroid tablet but that he deleted them after the Google account was shut down.

Lyga told agents that he knew it was illegal to have those kinds of images and also illegal to share them with anyone else. Lyga also said that his favorite age range is girls between 8 and 14 years of age because he finds them the most attractive. The criminal complaint states that Lyga said he started looking at these type of images about 10 years ago, and that the other individuals living in the residence with him had no idea he looked at those kind of images and that he knows he needs help.

Following the interview, Lyga was placed under arrest by the DCI Special Agents.

Ten Counts of Possession of Child P*rnography are filed in Washburn County Circuit Court against Garry Lyga. These charges are Class D Felony offenses with a maximum sentence on each count of 25 years confinement in state prison or a maximum fine of $100,000 or both, as well as a $500 surcharge for each image possessed (the total number of images to be determined by the court based on the evidence associated with the charges).