CHILDREN'S MUSEUM BOSS, STAFF, FAILED DUE DILIGENCE

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
Brownsville Herald, Social Media

If anyone can jockey for some media spin, it has to be Director Felipe Pena III of the  Children’s Museum of Brownsville.

Peña was quoted in the local daily in a story about the 26-year-old Brownsville man who was charged with child pornography having been released from jail after posting a $150,000 secured bond. According to the daily, Daniel Molstad posted bond March 1. He had been incarcerated since his Jan. 27 arrest.

A federal criminal complaint states that authorities found child pornography videos on a cellphone belonging to Molstad. What the newspaper didn't mention was that he is the son of Coleith Molstad, Chief Executive Officer of the of the Mitte Foundation, which is collaborating with the City of Brownsville in a  major makeover of the area within its cultural district.

Pena said Friday that authorities assured him that none of Molstad’s alleged wrongdoing occurred at the museum.

“It was a major tragedy to hear of what came out of it,” Pena said. "We continue to try and improve every day…we have great practices in place that protect everyone at the museum,” Pena said.

Peña also played down Molstad's position at the museum saying that Molstad had been employed at CMB since 2019 where he served as a front desk clerk. Really? This graphic states that he was much more than that and he is identified as the Pavilion Manager of the museum. Which is is it then, a mere clerk or a manager?
 

Did Peña do his due diligence when he hired the Mitte CEO's son? Apparently not. Social media searches turned up these posts from Molstad where he revels in his alternative lifestyle. A cursory search would have turned up the posts. Why didn't they do it? 

Some of the conditions of Molstad release include that he is not allowed to have any electronic devices or access to them. He is also not allowed to have access to the Internet. He is not to have any contact with minor children and must stay 100 feet away from any school, park, playground, swimming pool, arcades and beaches. He is not to volunteer with any group involving children under the age of 18.

In addition, he must be confined to home detention, seek employment, refrain from using alcohol and unlawful drugs, submit to drug testing, surrender his passport, not travel to Mexico, avoid contacting any person who is an alleged victim or witness or anyone else involved in the case, and that he wear a GPS monitor.

According to court documents, the Texas Attorney General’s Office on May 25, 2021 contacted the Homeland Security Investigations and Rio Grande Valley Child Exploration Investigations Task Force with an investigative referral from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The referral was from a cloud-based storage involving a suspect uploading multiple files of child exploitation, authorities said.

The investigation led authorities to Molstad, and on Jan. 27, special agents with RGV CEITF conducted a “consensual interview” with the man at his work place in Brownsville, court documents reflect.

During the interview, Molstad admitted to receiving, distributing and possessing child pornography, according to authorities. He stated “he had been downloading child pornography for approximately two years through online chat groups,” the documents state.

Through a search of Molstad’s cellphone, agents said they determined he had received or downloaded more than 200 videos of child pornography from Aug. 1, 2021 to Jan. 22, 2022, the documents state.

The videos depicted children engaged in sexual acts, officials said. “In addition, some of the videos depicted infants from approximately three to six months of age engaged in sexual acts,” according to the documents.

As of Friday, no other court dates had been scheduled in Molstad’s case.