CHILDREN'S MUSEUM CLERK GUILTY OF HAVING CHILD PORN: WORKED THERE FOR 2-PLUS YEARS; MUSEUM SAYS ALL IS OK

By Laura Martinez

Brownsville Herald

A 26-year-old Brownsville man who pleaded guilty Monday to being in possession of child pornography will remain out on bond until his Nov. 16 sentencing date before U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera Jr., federal court documents reflect.

Daniel Benjamin Molstad appeared before Olvera Monday afternoon where he entered a guilty plea to knowingly possessing material that contained multiple images of child pornography, according to a federal indictment. His guilty plea comes about six months after his arrest.

(Ed.'s Note: Molstead  is the the son of Coleith Molstad, Chief Executive Officer of the of the Mitte Foundation and had worked at the museum since 2019 where he served as a front desk clerk. She was not named in the indictment. The BCM director denied any of the criminal acts occurred at the museum and assured parents their children had been safe.) 

Molstad was arrested on Jan. 27 and is out of jail on a $150,000 bond. He was indicted on the child pornography charge Aug. 11.

A federal criminal complaint states that authorities found child pornography videos on a cellphone belonging to Molstad.

Authorities said he used the Telegram app to share the videos. Molstad was charged with one count of distribution or receipt of child pornography and one count of possessing or accessing child pornography.

Although Molstad had been employed by the Children’s Museum of Brownsville around the time of his arrest, CMB Director Felipe Pena III in an earlier interview said 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.

Pena put out a statement on the CMB website after learning of Molstad’s arrest assuring parents that nothing had happened at the museum.

“We continue to try and improve every day…we have great practices in place that protect everyone at the museum,” Pena said.

Molstad had been employed at CMB since 2019 where he served as a front desk clerk.

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 workplace 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 3- to 6-months of age engaged in sexual acts,” according to the documents.