The FBI has arrested a former tech worker and canine agility trainer from Shingle Springs, charging him with child exploitation and accusing him of placing hidden cameras in the bathroom of his home to record young boys for a decade.
Terry Francis Le Clair, 64, was arrested by the FBI and jailed Thursday in the Sacramento County Main Jail. He is being held without bond and made a brief appearance Friday afternoon before a federal magistrate who ordered him to remain in custody pending a hearing Tuesday.
A 15-page criminal complaint and affidavit filed in federal court in Sacramento on Friday morning says that in addition to the secret videos, Le Clair is accused of assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2017 while attending a pageant. of canine agility in Luxembourg. .
An affidavit from FBI Special Agent Scott Schofield says the investigation began in June when the alleged victim called the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center and reported inappropriate behavior by Le Clair when the boy and his older brother were in Europe for the dog show.
Court documents say the boy met Le Clair when he was 12 and that he and his sister wanted to get involved in canine agility training. The children’s mother took them to see Le Clair, who is described in court documents as “a well-known canine agility trainer” who had a class on her property in Shingle Springs.
“When they arrived, Le Clair offered to allow (the boy) to lead one of Le Clair’s dogs on the course…” the affidavit reads. “(The boy) did it and Le Clair told him he had real talent.
“Le Clair offered to start training (him) in canine agility. (The boy) got into it quickly and enjoyed the workout. While his sister stopped training with Le Clair in a few months, (the boy) continued to train.
The family was not charged for the lessons, and after about three years, Le Clair suggested the boy accompany him to an international dog show in Luxembourg in July 2017, the affidavit states.
“Le Clair believed that (the boy) was sufficiently qualified to compete in this international competition,” the affidavit states, and agreed to pay most of the cost of the two-week trip for the boy and his brother during which they toured Europe.
After the competition, the three reunited in Paris and were scheduled to return to the United States on July 21, 2017, the affidavit states.
Two days before departure, the boys “decided they wanted to get drunk,” the affidavit states.
“In Europe, the legal drinking age is younger and they felt this was perhaps their only chance before returning to the United States,” the affidavit reads. “Le Clair overheard their conversation and told them he would accompany them and pay for the drinks, but would stay sober himself and make sure they got back to the hotel safely.”
At the bar, the boy told the FBI, Le Clair bought him and his brother alcohol-laden drinks.
“He believed his drink had more than 10 shots of alcohol and his recollection is that he finished his own drink and finished the portion of (his brother) that (the brother) couldn’t finish,” says the affidavit.
The boy immediately felt drunk and “did not clearly remember the rest of that night,” the affidavit states.
He remembers vomiting on himself at the hotel, then undressing in the bathroom and lying in the tub with the shower running, the affidavit said.
The boy woke up naked in his bed, the affidavit states.
“He didn’t sleep naked, normally, and especially not when he was sharing a hotel room with other people,” the affidavit reads. “However, his last memory of the night before was lying naked in the tub, so he wasn’t completely surprised to find that he wasn’t wearing any clothes.
“He put on his underwear and walked into the bathroom. Le Clair was awake, sitting on his bed with his iPad.
Later, the three went to lunch, where Le Clair started talking about masturbation with the boys, which made the 15-year-old “very uncomfortable”, according to the affidavit.
After the meal, Le Clair and the brother decided to go sightseeing, while the boy stayed at the hotel to talk to friends back home via Snapchat, the affidavit states. Because the boy had vomited on his cell phone and destroyed it, he borrowed Le Clair’s tablet to talk to a friend.
While doing so, he accidentally bumped into an icon which opened up a series of photos showing the naked boy, including close-ups of his genitals and some showing Le Clair’s hand touching his penis, the affidavit states.
In shock, the boy texted his brother to tell him what he had found, and the two then managed to get down to the hotel and call their father, who told them to pretend nothing was until they could go home. , says the affidavit.
“(The father) said he would normally catch the next flight to Paris to help (his sons), but he probably wouldn’t be able to get to Paris until their scheduled departure the next morning,” the affidavit reads.
A week later, the boy’s mother confronted Le Clair at her home and Le Clair “acknowledged that he had taken the photos and told her he would delete them,” the affidavit states, adding, “He was in tears during part of this discussion.”
She left after that and neither she nor her son spoke to Le Clair again, the affidavit states, adding that the 15-year-old started having problems at school after the trip and began to experiment with drugs and alcohol.
“He also struggled with self-harm,” the affidavit states.
After the FBI’s call in June, investigating officers found that Le Clair’s home had been used since 2017 for canine agility events that included the presence of minors, the affidavit states.
The FBI searched Le Clair’s home on Thursday, where Le Clair admitted to taking nude photos of the boy, the affidavit states.
“Le Clair did not know why he took these photos,” the affidavit states. “He said he had suffered a severe concussion before the trip which he said sometimes drove him ‘crazy’ and that during those times he had poor judgement.
“He had hit his head while he was in Luxembourg, which had aggravated this condition. He said bending over and straightening up caused those “loop” moments and that cleaning vomit from the hotel room floor caused that reaction that night.
Le Clair also admitted to touching the naked boy’s body, ‘but claimed it was only to clean the vomit off his body,’ the affidavit states, adding that Le Clair denied taking pictures of himself. touching the boy’s penis.
As officers searched Le Clair’s electronic devices, they discovered video files showing young boys in his bathroom, the affidavit states.
“Le Clair admitted to capturing these videos,” the affidavit states. “He said he had been capturing clandestine videos of men and boys for over a decade.
“He used two cameras disguised as pens and one disguised as a key ring, for this purpose. Investigators located these devices in Le Clair’s bedroom and in the bathroom where the videos described above were captured. The key fob was found plugged into a charger.
The criminal complaint says Le Clair could face up to 30 years in prison — with a minimum of 15 years — and a $250,000 fine if convicted of sexually exploiting a child.
This story was originally published September 23, 2022 12:36 p.m.
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