A Walt Disney World Cast Member was arrested on Thursday for a child pornography charge. The employee also said that he shared photos of his Disney coworkers and their personal contact information on a porn social networking website.
Orlando Sentinel shared details of the case. Daniel Rivera was arrested after law enforcement discovered a file-sharing account containing child pornography was accessed at his home and on Disney property.
“He has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the charges,” a Walt Disney World spokesperson told Orlando Sentinel. They did not indicate where Rivera worked at Walt Disney World.
Rivera told investigators that, in addition to the child pornography, he had shared pictures of unwitting coworkers on a website with discussions of “sexual interest.” Some of the coworkers were dressed as Disney characters and Rivera shared some of their private contact information with fellow users.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had told the Orange County Sheriff’s Office about potential child pornography being shared on Dropbox, which kicked off the investigation in September.
Dropbox provided the account information, IP addresses, and dates and times the account was accessed from July through September. One of the accounts was linked to Walt Disney World, implying “the user was located within Disney office space or Disney property.”
The Dropbox account contained two files showing child pornography. Investigators linked the account to Rivera’s Winter Garden home. They went through his social media accounts, finding photos of Rivera being honored for 20 years of service at Walt Disney World.
They also found Rivera’s account on the website centered around discussion of “sexual interest” about photos and videos. Rivera had 155 posts, “including several photos of young girls and women he claims he knows” and photos of his Disney coworkers.
Some of the discussion forums had “titles indicative of an interest in young girls and theme parks.”
The website was taken down in March 2022.
When law enforcement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Homeland Security, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement searched Rivera’s home on Thursday, they found a hard drive containing photos of girls in “erotic poses.”
Rivera initially said in an interview that he viewed and saved “less than 30 videos of child pornography, and that he digressed into looking for child pornography in the last year or two.”
After investigators presented the conflicting evidence, Rivera confessed that he had been searching for and obtaining child pornography “about once a week for the last 10 years.”
Court records state he said on the phone to his wife, “I have a problem I guess. I tried to fix myself but I never could.”
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