By Larry Judkins
Glenn County Observer
Willows – On Thursday, March 11, Cynthia Sarah Hardie, 44, was arrested by the Glenn County Sheriff’s major crimes unit (GLINTF) on child pornography charges.
At the time, the only information regarding this matter that was released to the public was the Glenn County Jail’s news brief. Now, thanks to the statement of probable cause for a search warrant by GLINTF agent and Glenn County Sheriff’s Detective Zachery Lopeteguy, much more is known.
Ten days earlier, on Monday, March 1, Detective Lopeteguy received a phone call from Javier Dominguez, a security investigator for Swift Transportation. Dominguez told Lopeteguy an employee named Cynthia Hardie (a man, by the way, according to the Glenn County Jail’s media release) works for Swift Transportation as a truck driver.
Hardie had a medical issue and parked the Swift Transportation tractor in Dunnigan. The big rig was later retrieved by other Swift Transportation employees.
Dominguez explained that Hardie’s tractor was cleaned and all of the belongings were removed and stored for a period of time. While another employee was sorting the items prior to discarding them, the employee found a camera and an MP3 player.
Dominguez said the employee examined the contents of the camera and found 25 to 50 files with titles similar to “Rape, child porn and child pornography”. The employee notified a superior and that is how Dominguez learned about the incident.
Dominguez told Detective Lopeteguy to contact Claudia Stone at the Swift Transportation terminal at 1475 Highway 99 in Willows for the evidence items. On Wednesday, March 3, Lopeteguy went to the Swift terminal and met with Stone.
She explained that she received a camera with an SD card and an MP3 player from employee Stephen Hansel, who told her the camera possibly held illegal sexual content. Stone then notified Swift Transportation security.
Shortly after meeting with Stone, Detective Lopeteguy met with Hansel, who explained how he came across the suspected contraband. He said the Swift tractor was picked up in Dunnigan after the driver left it there due to a medical emergency.
The vehicle was brought to the Willows terminal, and after the interior of the tractor was cleaned and all of Hardie’s personal belongings were removed, Hansel decided to look at the items. Hansel found a camera and an MP3 player.
Hansel told Detective Lopeteguy he removed the SD card from the cameral to confirm the camera belonged to Hardie and to make sure there weren’t any family photos before the items were thrown away. When he opened a file under a “limelight file,” he found titles that read “Sex with a 14-year-old, sex with a 16-year-old, and rape of a minor”.
Hansel did not open any of the files. He closed the files, notified his supervisor, and turned the camera, SD card and MP3 player over to Claudia Stone.
Hansel also sent Stone an email regarding the incident. He gave Detective Lopeteguy a copy of this email:
“On 3/1/2021 around 1330 [1:30 p.m.] I started to go through driver belongings that have been deemed trash for staying in storage too long by the Swift manager. Upon going through the belongings of truck 20257 I found a camera that had an SD card in it and I wanted to make sure there were no family photos that would be lost if thrown in the trash.
“I proceeded to remove the SD card from the camera and put it in my laptop to check for photos. Upon doing this I found that there were was a file that said MIDIA and when I checked the file it was empty.
“There were several more files on this card and when I checked the second one that labeled LIMEWIRE I had seen that there were either photos or video of what sounded like it was child pornography. These titles included sex with a 14 year old, sex with a 16 year old, and rape of a minor.
“None of these files were open. I then called the Swift manager over to verify what I was looking at and asked him what his company policy was on this matter. He looked at the computer screen and told me to pull it out and he will give it to Claudia to let her get ahold of Swift security.
“I cannot say that the titles I wrote above are exact to the titles on the photos or videos. There are also other videos of animated porn (7 in total) and other pornographic DVD’s (3 in total).
“After talking to the head of Swift security, he said to try and get everything that was in the box back in it and put it to the side and take photos of the box. Attached are the photos of the box with everything I believe was in the box at the time. Some of the items may still be in another box or in a trash bag that is next to the box.”
Detective Lopeteguy also spoke with Swift Transportation Service Leader Justin Jager, who explained that Hardie’s tractor was in Dunnigan for a period of time. Hardie had an unknown medical issue, parked the tractor, and locked it.
Jager and Swift Transportation employee Russel Adams went to Dunnigan and picked up the tractor. They found it secure but filthy inside.
Adams drove the tractor back to the Willows terminal, where it was photographed and then cleaned. Swift Transportation employee Roy Tunget cleaned the filth from the tractor and placed the items belonging to Hardie into a large cardboard box, which was stored at the Willows terminal.
Russel Adams told Detective Lopeteguy he and Justin Jager went to pick up the Swift tractor in Dunnigan. Adams found the tractor secure when he arrived, with the windows up and the doors locked.
Adams said the tractor was filthy and he regretted having to drive it back to Willows. Upon arrival at the Willows terminal, he parked and secured it.
Adams immediately left the tractor and washed his hands because of the filth inside. He did not remove anything from the vehicle.
He was the only person in the vehicle when he drove it from Dunnigan. He did not tamper with anything inside the vehicle.
Swift Transportation employee Roy Tunget told Detective Lopeteguy that he was tasked with cleaning the filthy tractor. He threw away what he thought was garbage.
He found what appeared to be cartoon-style pornography and threw it away, also. He did remember a camera being in the tractor. He told Lopeteguy the camera went into the cardboard box.
Detective Lopteguy requested a warrant in order to search the above-mentioned digital media devices for child pornographe and for any indicia of who the owner of these items is.
At 7:29 p.m. on Thursday, March 11, Cynthia Sarah Hardie of Rapid City, South Dakota, was booked into the Glenn County Jail on charges alleging sexual exploitation of a child, and possession of child pornography (both felonies). Bail was set at $100,000.
The Glenn County Observer 