Woodburn man charged with child porn possession; talked to decoys

ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. ---The Woodburn man said he’d paid $2,000 to various social media platforms for the child pornography on his cell phone.

He told a county police officer that he’d even tried to meet up with an underage girl at a local MacDonald’s only she didn’t show up.

But some of those young girls he thought he was talking to were decoys, according to a probable cause affidavit submitted by Officer Kristen Lewis with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI Task Force.

Bryan Eugene Gramling, 57, of Woodburn, apparently didn’t see anything wrong with collecting “thousands of photos of child pornography” and having online conversations with girls he thought were nine or 12.

He was caught after Predator Poachers Illinois traveled to Fort Wayne on April 27 to confront Gramling at his home about his illegal activities.

That day, two operatives with the organization called police who arrived around 1:30 p.m. Police witnessed Gramling speaking to them in his front yard., court documents said.

Gramling told the operatives that he intended to delete the child porn off his phone and would stop his online conversations with underage girls. He also admitted to having “thousands” of child porn photos on his phone. 

But he refused to surrender his phone “because he needed it,” court documents said.

Predator Poachers Illinois had made digital copies of the messages between Gramling and the decoys and the operatives told the sheriff’s deputies they’d forward those to law enforcement.

A search warrant was issued for Gramling’s phone. 

During the initial encounter, Gramling told officers he knew what he was doing was “wrong" but said he was “not a ‘raper’.” Officers told Gramling that if he destroyed his phone, he could incur additional charges, court documents said

Bryan Eugene Gramling

Gramling was picked up in a traffic stop on June 5 and gave up his phone, admitting that “he’d deleted at least a thousand photographs and videos” after his initial encounter in April.

But there were still several videos and photos of child pornography that included toddlers and children between four and 16 years old in various sex acts. He’d paid $2,000 for them, he said.

Gramling said he used the photos to perform sex acts on himself, court documents said.

Gramling is no longer in jail. The probable cause indicates his bond was $10,000.

He’s charged with Felony 5 child porn possession, which, if convicted, could carry a sentence between one and six years.

His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 8.