By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — A Springfield, Vermont, man is facing six felony counts of possession of child sexual abuse materials, after he was arrested during a multi-agency cooperative effort after receiving a tip that he had allegedly uploaded them onto a server.
Eric Chambers, 55 was arraigned on Feb. 7 on the charges stemming from search warrants conducted by the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (VT-ICAC). This included the Attorney General’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations, Kansas Bureau of Investigations, Hartford Police Department and Springfield Police Department.
“This investigation was initiated when the VT-ICAC Task Force received four CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”),” the office of the Vermont Attorney General stated in a release. “The tip was reported by Synchronoss Technologies, a cloud storage provider, after an individual uploaded images of child sexual abuse materials from an electronic device onto its servers.”
The report by the AG’s office stated that the criminal investigation based off of that tip led to identifying Chambers as the owner of the cloud storage account that uploaded the images onto Synchronoss. A search warrant on Chamber’s residence was executed, and child sex abuse images were allegedly found in his possession.
Chambers pleaded not guilty at the arraignment in Vermont Superior Court, Rutland Unit, Criminal Division. Judge Cortland Corsones ordered various conditions of release, which restricted his access to minors, as well as the internet and electronic devices.
Court records show that authorities began looking into Chambers in July 2024 when he was found to be in connection to a case out of Kansas. After an investigation, a search warrant of Chambers and his wife Bobbiejo Chambers was conducted at 32 Valley Street, Unit A on Dec. 6.
During the conversation between Chambers and police, he was shown printed images that were recovered from the Synchronoss account that Chambers said he did not recognize, but did acknowledge they depicted children in sex acts.
Through a conversation, authorities said Chambers was seen as “defeated, inaudible, reflective and remorseful.” He denied ever touching a child saying, “I’ve never harmed a kid.”
On Dec. 11, authorities met with Chambers for a follow-up interview at Springfield Probation and Parole and then taken into custody. He was described as being unhelpful in assisting.”
Court records showed that authorities found numerous sex abuse files of young children engaging in sex acts. The age is not confirmed, but some appeared to be of females less than 9 years old.
On Dec. 16, Chambers reportedly asked for assistance in getting a “sexual assessment” to assist him in court. Probation Officer Jennifer Raymond told authorities that Chambers “had child pornography, wants help and accepts responsibility.”
Chambers has a criminal history that goes back 39 years, according to a report by the Rutland Herald on April 11, 2007, when he was sentenced to serve jail time after escaping from furlough. He also escaped from a holding cell in Rutland District Court in 1991.
On March 11, 2011, Chambers was arrested for lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and burglary, when he allegedly broke into a Fair Haven residence and inappropriately touched a juvenile. However, the case was dismissed on Jan. 18, 2022, according to court records.
Later in 2021 he faced felony charges after he allegedly drove over the leg of a man he knew from a previous jail stint after a physical altercation, the Rutland Herald reported.
Most recently Chambers was arrested in September for aggravated domestic assault, violation of conditions of release, and interference with access to emergency services violation.
Court records show that Chambers has been charged with 33 felonies and convicted for 23 of them, and also 35 misdemeanors with 28 convictions. On May 8, 1998, he was convicted for disseminating indecent materials to a minor, which is a misdemeanor.
Springfield Police Chief Jeff Burnham said that he was not on his department’s radar for this type of specific charge, but he noted that when there are people known to be in and out of the criminal justice system, they make mental notes to help with his whereabouts and potential activity.
“Should we come into contact with them then the red flags will shoot up and we can act accordingly,” Burnham said.
Burnham said the goal with a multi-agency effort like this is to keep open and timely communication between the departments in Vermont, as well as out of state. The goal is to work collaboratively to better be effective.
“This is an example of good communication and following through to an arrest,” Burnham said. “It seems like we are moving in a good direction.
Attempts to reach Amelia Vath, outreach and communications coordinator for the Vermont Attorney General’s office, were unsuccessful. A message was left but not returned by deadline.
If convicted, each charge has a penalty of imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than $10,000, or both.
According to the release by the AG office, VT-ICAC is in place to investigate child sexual exploitation over the internet that includes production and online distribution of child sexual abuse materials. It also provides technical assistance, education, outreach, forensic examination, and law enforcement training.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is the nation’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children, according to the release by the AG’s office. Anyone can make reports of suspected online enticement of children for sexual acts, child sexual molestation, child sexual abuse material, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child, misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on the internet.
“Every child deserves a safe childhood,” the release stated.
To make a report, call the 24-hour call center at 1-800-843-5678 or visit https://report.cybertip.org. .
Those who are recovering from child exploitation can call a 24-hour call center at 1-800-843-5678 or visit https://www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/csam-resources to find peer support and mental health professionals, while also removing content from the internet.
