A 35-year-old Beekman man was arrested Wednesday after New York State Police said he possessed digital images of child sexual exploitation material, capping an investigation that stretched back more than a year. Anderson Merard was charged with 11 counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child less than 16 and issued an appearance ticket to Town of Beekman Court.
The case began with a cyber tip, according to News10, which reported that New York State Police received the tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The station reported the investigation began in June 2025, meaning troopers spent more than a year building the case before Merard's arrest on Wednesday. Police said Merard had digital images of child sexual exploitation material, per the station's report.
A Long-Running Cyber Investigation
New York State Police charged Merard following a cyber-tip investigation. The agency's ICAC Task Force handles a steady stream of such leads — it received more than 22,000 CyberTips and supported more than 4,000 subpoena requests in 2023 alone, according to New York State Police data on the task force's work.
The volume of tips feeding into these investigations has only grown. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported it received more than 1.5 million CyberTipline reports in 2025 and flagged a sharp rise in reports tied to generative AI technology, the organization said in its year-end review.
Felony Charges and What Comes Next
Under New York law, possessing a sexual performance by a child is classified as a class E felony, according to the New York State Senate's penal code. State law also outlines the appearance-ticket procedure that was used in Merard's case, though the available record does not spell out the specific reasoning behind issuing a ticket rather than holding him, per the relevant statute.
The Dutchess County District Attorney's Office, in a record kept on Crimewatch, notes that Merard is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. No court disposition, plea, or additional case details beyond the arrest and charges have been made public.
