CANAAN — A 40-year-old Canaan man plans to plead guilty to multiple child pornography charges after police found thousands of sexually explicit images of children on digital memory cards he owned, according to court documents.

Last week, a Grafton Superior Court grand jury indicted Erick Freeman on five felony counts of possession of child sexual abuse images, following a monthslong investigation that began early this year.

Freeman, who was arrested on the charges in March, filed an intent to plead guilty to the charges in June, agreeing to a plea deal that could result in a minimum five-year prison sentence with one year suspended. He has a plea and sentencing date scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Police first learned about the images in January, when a family member of Freeman’s turned over an SD (secure digital) card found in Freeman’s camera, with nearly 1,500 sexually explicit images of children, many of whom were younger than 13, according to an affidavit written by Canaan Police Sgt. Ryan Porter.

After going through the images and confirming that the card was Freeman’s, police obtained a search warrant for his car and house and took Freeman in for questioning in March, Porter wrote.

During the interview, Freeman told police he started searching for child pornography years earlier using what is known as the dark web, and that he still accessed the videos and images weekly, the affidavit said. He also told police that he had an SD card with more images and videos in his car, according to the affidavit.

After searching the car, police found the SD card, which had around 1,400 images of sexually explicit images of children, Porter wrote. Police identified five files as “verified” child pornography, leading investigators to charge Freeman with five counts of possessing child sexual abuse images, the affidavit said.

Freeman, who worked as a manager at Dunkin’ Donuts and has been held in preventive detention since his March arraignment, has agreed to a plea deal, which would give him a five- to 10-year prison sentence for three of the charges, with the first year suspended if he completes a sex offender treatment program, according to his notice of intent to plead guilty.

The remaining two charges carry a 7½- to 15-year sentence, which would be suspended for 10 years as long as Freeman complies with conditions including good behavior and no contact with minors, according court documents.

Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.

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