NYT best-selling author, ‘Jeopardy!’ champion Brendan DuBois arrested on child porn charges
New York Times best-selling author Brendan DuBois was arrested on child porn charges Wednesday after cops in New Hampshire found dozens of sickening images of kids — some only infants — in his possession.
DuBois, who co-authored multiple books with James Patterson, turned himself in to police in Exeter following a four-month-long investigation between the local department and the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, Seacostonline reported.
The married author, and one-time “Jeopardy!” champ, was charged with six felony counts of possession of child pornography and pleaded not guilty during an arraignment hearing Thursday.
DuBois, 64, “did knowingly possess at least 35 visual representations of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct,” according to the criminal complaint obtained by the local outlet.
Investigators began their probe in March after Google reported that a user was using Google Drive to store “apparent child pornography,” according to an affidavit obtained by the publication.
They then tracked down the IP address of the Google user and connected it to the author and longtime Exeter resident.
On May 7, investigators executed a search warrant at DuBois’ home — during which his wife told police the couple has separate computers and private, password-protected WiFi.
Officers then confiscated a hard drive and Apple laptop from the author’s home office and a subsequent search flagged more than 5,600 images as “possible child abuse content.”
The disturbing photos exploited infants to children around 12 years of age, according to the police affidavit.
A probe into DuBois’ search history also turned up search phrases like “I accidentally saved child pornography to my main Google Drive” and “How to tell if Google has reported me to the police,” the document obtained by the outlet said.
The author’s publisher, Severn River Publishing, has already yanked his books off shelves and taken down his author bio page.
“We are deeply disturbed by the serious allegations against Brendan DuBois,” the company said in a statement to the news site. “While we respect the legal process, we have decided to immediately suspend all promotion and sales of Mr. DuBois’ books. We believe these steps are necessary to uphold our values and maintain the trust of our readers, authors, and the publishing community.”
Severn River Publishing — which published his latest novel “Terminal Surf” released last month — did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Post.
DuBois, has penned 29 novels — including six with Patterson and his best-known “Lewis Cole” mystery series — as well as more than 200 published short stories.
The New Hampshire resident lists several awards on his website including three “Shamus Awards from the Private Eye Writers of America, two Barry Awards, two Derringer Awards, the Ellery Queen Readers Award, and three Edgar Allan Poe Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America.”
