A Wisconsin man is facing federal child pornography charges after police say he shared explicit videos and images of minors in an online chat while he was living in the Florida Keys this past spring, according to court records.
Eric Edward Cadogan, 39, who moved from Marathon to La Crosse, Wisconsin in July, is accused of chatting with an undercover FBI agent on the Kik messaging app in May, after both were in a group chat called “Family Love,” states a criminal complaint the FBI filed Dec. 7 in U.S. District Court.
The Kik group bore the hashtag #incextandchill.
Cadogan, when asked if he had child porn to sell, replied, “Absolutely. A dollar per 5 minute video or less,” the FBI said.
“I have 100 of videos (and) pictures,” Cadogan also typed, and shared several videos of undressed female children in explicit poses and being used in sexual acts.
Cadogan may have done more than possession and distribution of child pornography, FBI agents said.
This month, the FBI reported finding evidence that they say identifies Cadogan as the man in a video raping a girl and that he may have forced a woman into a sexual act with an 8-year-old boy.
But the feds first encountered Cadogan as a Kik user offering child porn for sale.
On May 22, Cadogan told the agent he lived in Marathon and was the “lucky father” of children between ages 6 to 15. Cadogan’s Facebook page shows photos of him surrounded by his children who resemble the same age range.
In an August 2019 Facebook post, Cadogan writes in a comment that he’s living in “Marathon, Florida, the Florida Keys!” on a 35-foot boat. “And it looks like we will be here till winter,” he adds.
The FBI said Cadogan was the man behind the Kik username “livelife4fun69,” who posted in the “Family Love” group chat that he had 30 videos “of your preferred style” to anyone who could send $30 to an account on the mobile payment service Cash App.
FBI agents tracked down Cadogan’s cell phone and his address at a Marathon marina after collecting records from Google, Kik, Cash App, cell phone companies and Comcast, whose records showed the IP address linked to the Kik username was associated with the same marina.
They also found his Facebook page, where his introduction reads, “husband and father of seven. I love big family and life on the water!”
Cadogan is due back in the Keys to answer to the charge of distribution of child pornography, court documents say. On Dec. 11, he appeared in front of a Wisconsin federal judge, who ordered him to appear in the Southern District of Florida federal court, but no dates were on the paperwork.
Cadogan waived his right to an identity hearing, preliminary detention hearing and to wait for a warrant to be produced – all procedures he could request in Wisconsin. Instead, he requested his detention hearing take place in the prosecuting district at a time set by that court.
Rape allegations emerge
A separate FBI investigation in Wisconsin turned up a cell phone that agents said contained texts from Cadogan about images and videos of naked children.
The phone also contained a video of a man raping a child. The FBI said the man in the video wore a black bracelet with a silver emblem.
On Dec. 7, one of Cadogan’s children identified the black bracelet in the video as their father’s. During a search of Cadogan’s Wisconsin home, agents said they found a similar bracelet in Cadogan’s bedroom.
In an interview with an FBI agent on Dec. 7, a woman identified in the criminal complaint only as K.C. said that in 2020, Cadogan forced her to have intercourse with an 8-year-old boy on Cadogan’s boat at the marina.
It was unclear at press time whether Cadogan was in custody. But court records in La Crosse County, Wisconsin say Cadogan appeared in court there on a felony domestic battery charge on Dec. 8 – one day after the search of his Wisconsin home.
The La Crosse Tribune newspaper reported on Dec. 13 that Cadogan was charged with pushing a woman to the floor twice during an argument. One fall left the woman with a broken hand.
Cadogan on Dec. 13 was free on a $2,000 bond, according to the Tribune. He is due back in court on Jan. 18, 2024, for the domestic battery case.
