SYCAMORE – A Cortland woman pleaded not guilty this month to charges that she took photographs of girls being sexually abused and sold them to a Wisconsin man for $10 each, court records show.
Eroica N. Young, 32, was charged Jan. 24 with disseminating, creating and possessing child sexual abuse images, according to DeKalb County court records. A DeKalb County grand jury indicted Young on Feb. 16.
She’s being held in police custody pretrial at the DeKalb County Jail, a ruling made by Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick after a request from the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Young is represented by attorney Chip Criswell of the DeKalb County Public Defender’s Office. When reached Thursday, Criswell declined to comment.
Young appeared virtually from the jail for a March 14 arraignment in front of Buick, where she indicated her desire to have a jury trial to decide her fate, court records show.
Cortland police received a tip on Nov. 11 from a witness who alleged that a Wisconsin man received inappropriate images of children from Young. The man “accidentally forwarded the images” to the witness, who turned them over to Cortland police, according to court records.
Young confessed to police in an interview during the investigation, according to court records.
During a Jan. 26 search of Young’s property, Cortland police also found 800 grams of marijuana and a “large grow lab,” authorities said in a news release from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and Cortland Police Department.
DeKalb County sheriff’s deputies, Cortland police and the DeKalb County Special Operations Team were looking for electronic devices when they found the marijuana, according to a news release. The items and plants were found in a detached garage on Young’s property along with packaging materials used for distribution, police said.
As of Thursday, Young has not been charged in the drug raid, according to court records.
She is next set to appear in court for a status hearing at 9:45 a.m. April 17.