Burke Weber - Repeat Sex Offender

Sarah Tofte of the Human Rights Watch says 25% of all sex offenders
re-offend within 15 years

Police in St. Joseph County are scanning nearly a thousand CD's and DVD's from a child pornography bust.

Monday, a tip led officers to the home of Sturgis resident Burke Weber, where they confiscated the disks and a set of computers.

Weber's arrest marks the third child pornography bust in Strugis in the last month, and this time, the suspect is a convicted sex offender.

For more than 10 years, Weber lived above his mother, Cheryl Jourdan, in her N. Fourth Street home.

And Jourdan didn't mince words when she explained to Newschannel 3 what she would have done, if she ever suspected her son was up to anything illegal.

"I'd throw that computer out the window and he'd have went right with it," said Jourdan.

So when police showed up to search the home Monday night, Jourdan was shocked.

Police say they were tipped off after the 40-year-old, with a prior conviction for 4th degree Criminal Sexual Conduct, returned a laptop to the local Rent-A-Center store. Sturgis Police Sgt. Luis Rosado says the store's employees found the explicit material.

"As part of their regular duties, they cleaned off the hard drives, and they found what they suspected was child pornography," said Sgt. Rosado.

Investigators are now in the process of searching the two computers and nearly 1,000 disks they've seized, trying to figure out how many images Weber downloaded.

But his mother, Cheryl Jourdan, says there's a simple explanation for the images.

"He said somebody e-mailed him this child pornography, and he's got a friend in the FBI, he was going to give it to him," said Jourdan. "Well, he hadn't gotten it to him yet."

That's a story that's not very soothing to Weber's neighbors. Newschannel 3 spoke with one of those neighbors, who says she now fears for the safety of her family.

"Yes, I am worried," she said. "I am very worried, because I don't want anything to happen to my kids."

Jourdan says there's no way her son is guilty as charged.

"Heavens no. He wouldn't do anything to hurt a kid. Never," she said.

Yet police hope that this, and other recent child porn arrests, send a strong message to those victimizing kids by downloading the images.

"It's like playing Russian Roulette," said Sgt. Rosado. "Eventually, you're going to get caught."

Weber is now in the St. Joseph County Jail, and his bond is set at $10,000 in cash.