Ogden man accused of trading e-cigs for child porn indicted

An Ogden man accused of using the promise of e-cigarettes to lure a 15-year-old boy into sending him sexually explicit photographs has been indicted in federal court, prompting the dismissal of a state case pertaining to the same alleged behavior.

Charles Randall Redwen, 49, was originally charged in Ogden's 2nd District Court with 10 counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor, three third-degree felony counts of dealing in harmful material to a minor, one third-degree felony count of soliciting sexual exploitation of a minor, and a misdemeanor count of enticing a minor.

But on Tuesday, the state case was dismissed after the case was filed in U.S. District Court, where Redwen has pleaded not guilty to charges of production of child pornography, coercion and enticement for illegal sexual activity and possession of child pornography. A four-day trial is scheduled to begin in May in the federal court.

Redwen, who is now being held in federal prison, was arrested Jan. 24 after the mother of the Riverdale boy allegedly discovered sexually-oriented text messages from Redwen on her son's cellphone. Riverdale police allegedly also found evidence of requests for pornographic images from Redwen on the boy's Facebook account.

Police said they found images of Redwen's genitalia that had been sent to the boy, and a text message sent Jan. 14 arranging to meet with the youth for the purpose of oral sex.

On Jan. 23, police executed a search warrant on Redwen's Ogden home. A probable cause statement contends that after waiving his Miranda rights, Redwen acknowledged the messages, and sending and receiving numerous explicit images to and from the boy between Dec. 1, 2013 and Jan. 23.

The search of his home turned up those images and others, possibly of other minors, police said.

jmiller@sltrib.com

Twitter: @jm_miller