Associated Incidents
A Texas Department of Public Safety staff sergeant was arrested earlier this month after his wife discovered a hard drive containing child sexual abuse material, or CSAM.
Preston Wade Pietrzykowski, 30, of Edinburg, was arrested March 3 on a charge of possession or promotion of child pornography.
Alexiz Lopez, a special agent in the agency's Criminal Investigation Division, received information on Feb. 20 about a DPS employee possibly having CSAM from Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Samantha Soria on behalf of a friend, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Soria's friend was identified as Pietrzykowski's wife, who eventually contacted Lopez on Feb. 26 and met at a local coffee shop in Edinburg.
His wife explained that "the reason for the delay and hesitation in coming forward was that Pietrzykowski would threaten her with deportation due to her pending immigration status," according to the document.
Earlier in the month of February, while searching for "signs of infidelity," the affidavit stated that his wife found a hard drive in Pietrzykowski's luggage.
When she plugged the hard drive into her computer to review its contents, his wife stated she found multiple images of female friends as well as images that depicted minor girls nude, according to the affidavit.
Among the photos of the nude minors, the affidavit noted the wife recognized one of the children "and knew for a fact that at the time of the photograph being taken, she was 16 years of age."
Pietrzykowski's wife gave the hard drive to Lopez, who reviewed the contents with a Texas Rangers investigator the following day to determine if it contained evidence of CSAM.
"While reviewing the contents of the hard drive, we observed one of the folders labeled as (external), which contained another folder labeled as (downloads), which included multiple images of female children under the age of eighteen with their genitals exposed," the affidavit stated. "The pictures had been deepfake."
A deepfake is a video, photo or audio that appears real but has been manipulated with artificial intelligence technologies.
The Texas Ranger investigator who reviewed the material with Lopez said Pietrzykowski's hard drive also contained "several sexually explicit videos and pictures of current female DPS employees' faces that were modified using an artificial inteiligence (sic) application (deepfake) exposing intimate body parts."
According to Texas Commission On Law Enforcement records, Pietrzykowski's peace officer license remains active. The affidavit noted Pietrzykowski is a staff sergeant with the agency's Tactical Marine Unit.
DPS said Wednesday afternoon that Pietrzykowski was immediately suspended following his arrest and referred any questions to the Hidalgo County District Attorney's Office.
"DPS takes these allegations very seriously and the department's Office of Inspector General ... has also launched a separate administrative investigation," the statement read.
The department added that Pietrzykowski's suspension includes pay "as is standard procedure pending the outcome of the agency's administrative investigation."
Pietrzykowski was hired by DPS in 2017 and stationed in Weslaco.
He bailed out of the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on March 6 on a $300,000 bond.
*Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information from DPS. *