Deschutes County Sheriff's Office cruiser

A La Pine man was arrested in his home Wednesday morning in an investigation into online distribution of child sex abuse material, law enforcement officials said. 

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office became aware of an IP address, which is a string of numbers that identifies a device connected to a network, that was distributing child sex abuse content, Sgt. Jason Wall, a spokesperson for the office, said in a Wednesday news release.

Detectives allege the IP address was tied to a computer that belonged to Cody O’Neal, 32, of La Pine.

O’Neal was allegedly transferring files through a peer-to-peer network called BitTorrent, which allows users to transfer files and communicate without requiring a separate server or server software, Wall said.

After months of collecting evidence, which included the discovery of videos of children being sexually abused, detectives from the sheriff’s office and Oregon State Police searched O’Neal’s house on the 15000 Block of Twin Drive in La Pine around 7 a.m. Wednesday, Wall said. Detectives seized computers, cellphones and external storage devices, and arrested O’Neal, he said. 

O’Neal was booked in the Deschutes County jail shortly after 8 a.m., according to jail records. Formal charges weren’t yet filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court as of Wednesday afternoon.