ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A 34-year-old Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson soldier made his first appearance in federal court Tuesday after being indicted on multiple federal charges related to child sex abuse materials.

Seth Herrera, a U.S. Army soldier, is accused of using artificial intelligence and AI chatbots to generate pornography depicting minors with whom he was in contact. Some of the children are the same age as a daughter of Herrera’s, court documents show.

On Thursday, a federal grand jury charged Herrera with one count of transportation of child pornography, one count of receipt of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography.

He was arrested the following day, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.

If convicted, Herrera faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

After hearing arguments from the prosecution and Herrera’s defense as to whether or not he should be detained during the duration of the trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kyle Reardon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ruled in favor of the government, agreeing that Herrera posed a “danger to the community” and displayed a “level of sophistication to navigate the web to hide his footprints and conceal activities.”

While no trial-setting conference happened on Tuesday, a discovery management conference was set for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2024.

Attorney Rachel L. Rothberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Alaska’s News Source. Herrera’s defense attorney, Ben Muse, said in an emailed statement that he “cannot offer comment at this time.”

According to court documents, Herrera is also accused of viewing images specifically depicting violent sexual abuse of children and infants, which was generated from images and videos of children pulled from various social media pages.

“The misuse of cutting-edge generative AI is accelerating the proliferation of dangerous content,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement, “including child sexual abuse material — so the Department of Justice is accelerating its enforcement efforts. As alleged, the defendant used AI tools to morph images of real kids into horrific child sexual abuse material.”

According to a pre-trial detention document filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, Herrera also saved “surreptitious recordings” of minors undressing in his home.

A forensic review of three of his cell phones revealed tens of thousands of videos and images depicting the violent rape and sexual abuse of children dating back as early as March 2021.

Herrera is said to have used encrypted messaging applications and joined groups known for trafficking child sexual abuse material. According to prosecutors, he then kept the materials in a password-protected app — that was disguised as a calculator on his phone — for the purpose of hiding the files.

In March of this year, the FBI released a public service announcement regarding child sexual abuse material, warning of the legal consequences involved with obtaining and creating such material through AI.

“Federal law prohibits the production, advertisement, transportation, distribution, receipt, sale, access with intent to view, and possession of any CSAM, including realistic computer-generated images,” the FBI stated.

According to a statement released by Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to Alaska’s News Source, Herrera was a motor vehicle operator with the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 11th Airborne Division. He joined the Army in November 2019 and was previously stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Fort Bliss, Texas; and a base in Korea, before arriving in Alaska in August 2023.

After hearing arguments from the prosecution and Herrera’s defense as to whether or not he should be detained for the duration of the trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kyle Reardon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ruled in favor of the government, agreeing that Herrera posed a “danger to the community” and displayed a “level of sophistication to navigate the web to hide his footprints and conceal activities.”

If anyone has information concerning Herrera’s alleged actions, or if you may have encountered someone in person or online using the name Seth Herrera, the Justice Department asks that you contact the Homeland Security Investigations tip line at (877) 447-4847.

Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – An orphaned black bear cub that had been frequenting a homeless camp in Mountain View for months was captured by Alaska Fish and Game officials Friday and taken to the Alaska Zoo.

Residents of the camp said earlier this summer that the bear was a frequent visitor there and was regularly petted and fed.

Fish and Game was able to scoop up the 60-pound male bear and put it in a kennel, according to Sam Lavin, Curator at the zoo.

Lavin said humans did everything wrong when it comes to interacting with wildlife, but the cub was lucky because there was a placement available for it at an out-of-state zoo.

“The other option was that it was going to be euthanized because it was getting used to people,” Lavin said. “And if it starts approaching people, that’s a bad deal.”

For now, the cub is resting in the zoo infirmary where it is being treated for some minor health problems.

“We kind of gave it a quiet corner to sort of settle in and acclimate,” she said. “Pretty soon we’ll give it a yard and it will start getting used to visitors on the trail, and once it’s healthy and old enough, we will send it off to its new home.”

The Alaska Zoo doesn’t disclose which facilities animals are being sent to; they leave that for the receiving zoo to announce, but Lavin said she’s certain the cub will enjoy its new home.

“Alaska black bears, no matter where they go, they get spoiled,” she said.

The cub should be out of the infirmary in a day or two, according to Lavin, and then on public display. It’s likely to be at the Alaska Zoo for another month.

Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will keep in place protections against potential oil and gas development and mining claims on 28 million acres of federal land across Alaska, the federal government said Tuesday.

The lands were protected from such development in the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The Trump administration took steps to remove the protections, an effort supported by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.

But the Biden administration said it found legal flaws in the previous administration’s effort, leading to a new environmental review to determine the best use of the lands.

Haaland signed the decision Friday, following an environmental review and public input. A new public land order will retain the protections.

“Continuing these essential protections, which have been in place for decades, will ensure continued access and use of these public lands now and in the future,” Haaland said in a statement from the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the lands.

Dunleavy and Alaska’s congressional delegation have not yet commented on the decision.

The protected lands are spread across Alaska. They’re about the size of Pennsylvania, collectively. In Western Alaska, they’re in the western Interior, Seward Peninsula and Bristol Bay regions. They’re also located in Southcentral Alaska and in eastern Alaska.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, the agency received 15,000 public comments for the draft review, overwhelmingly favoring the protections.

The environmental review found that revoking any of the protections would likely harm subsistence hunting and fishing in dozens of Alaska Native communities that would lose federal subsistence priority over certain lands, the agency said. Wildlife, vegetation and permafrost would also be negatively impacted, it found.

Conservation groups and some Alaska Native groups on Tuesday praised the decision.

More than 2 million acres of the protected lands encompass Crooked Creek, the proposed mine site for the Donlin Gold mine, in the Kuskokwim River system, according to a statement from the Mother Kuskokwim Tribal Coalition. The lands also connect important migratory routes for both salmon and caribou, the statement said.

“Secretary Haaland’s decision today is an important step toward a future full of healthy lands, waters, and people who thrive on wild salmon, waterfowl, other migratory animals, and seasonal plant life,” said Anaan’arar Sophie Swope, executive director of Mother Kuskokwim.

The decision does not impact land available for selection by eligible individuals under the Alaska Native Vietnam-era Veterans Land Allotment Program, the agency said.

The Biden administration has taken other major actions to limit development in Alaska, such as implementing strong protections for most land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and rejecting a federal right-of-way for a 200-mile road to the Ambler mineral district in Northwest Alaska.

But in a controversial move, the administration last year approved ConocoPhillips’ giant Willow oil project in the petroleum reserve.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.