Edgewood man who ran for town commission accused of possessing child porn

Feb. 14—A man who ran for a seat on the Edgewood Town Commission in November is accused of possessing child sexual abuse material depicting children as young as 13.

Colin Clausen, 37, was charged with one count of sexual exploitation of children, according to a criminal complaint Edgewood police filed Monday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.

Clausen vied for the District 3 seat on the Edgewood Town Commission in the November municipal election but lost to another candidate.

An arrest warrant was issued for Clausen on Monday, but his name did not appear Wednesday in inmate logs for the jails in Santa Fe or Bernalillo counties.

Investigators with the Edgewood Police Department wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit the agency received a tip about Clausen through a digital tip line run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The digital evidence was submitted by Synchronoss Technologies Inc., a cloud-based data storage provider for content stored with Verizon within Santa Fe County, according to the affidavit.

The technology company's tip provided videos depicting exploitation of children 13 or younger and alleged they were uploaded in June to a Google account. Police tied the account to Clausen, according to the affidavit.