Disturbing text messages from man charged again with child solicitation

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --Social media has opened up a world of opportunities to connect with other people, to share holiday photos, personal triumphs, recipes, favorite music and pets.

But there is a dark side so beyond the ken of regular folks, and that’s where child pornography is found, a world most people would never go.

Douglas Mieras

Thanks to investigators willing to pursue these crimes, some of these people - mostly men - are brought to justice.

This week, Douglas Mieras, 64, was charged with Felony 4 child solicitation. (A Felony 4 carries a sentence of between two and 12 years.)

The probable cause against Mieras details text messages from Mieras to his victims that are so disturbing, the exact messages will not be published by The Probable Cause.

The charge was the result of a cyber tip delivered in late March to the Fort Wayne Police Department from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The ICAC form (Intranet Crime Against A Child) included three files of child pornography, dating to the end of January. 

Charles Volz, a long time investigator with FWPD’s Crimes Against Persons Unit, tracked the files to Mieras through IP and email addresses and phone numbers, court documents said

Mieras had obtained a screenshot and a Snapchat video of a six-year- old boy engaged in a sex act with a 12 year old boy in both images. One sex act took place in a shower.

Volz uncovered Mieras’ past which included “several involvements with SORN” ( Sex Offender Registration and Notification) and a previous conviction for child solicitation, court documents said.

FWPD obtained a search warrant to search Mieras’ apartment and “to seize any electronic devices that can store data.”

In early April, Volz arrived at Mieras’ apartment in the 3100 block of Broadway. Mieras cooperated with police and turned over his cell phones. In June, Volz was able to view the forensically extracted data.

Mieras was soliciting boys he believed were 14 or 15 years old, asking for nude photos “saying he will pay for them.” He also dictated how he wanted the photos taken with emphasis on the anal area. He also described the sex act he wanted to perform on the two victims, court documents said.

Mieras has been in prison twice for child solicitation, the first for about a year and a half after he was sentenced in March 2012, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. He was back in March 2014 for another year and a half for two counts of child solicitation.

The second incarceration was due to a probation revocation, although the cause is not explained in court documents.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, an independent federal agency, issued a report in 2021 indicating that the recidivism rate after three years for non-production child pornography offenders was nearly 28% and that the offenses “increasingly involve voluminous quantities of videos and images that are graphic in nature, often involving the youngest victims.”

The median number of images for these offenders were 4,265 and 99.4% of the victims were prepubescent. 

Nearly 75% of offenders who produce child porn are white, the commission says. Close to 94% are men and are U.S. citizens, with an average age of 38.

Mieras got out of the Allen County Jail on a $10,000 bond, according to a jail spokesman. He has another hearing scheduled for Nov. 24.