SALT LAKE CITY — The former director of operations for the Salt Lake City International Airport has been arrested by the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.
Randall Darwood Berg, 69, of Draper, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail Wednesday and charged Friday in 3rd District Court with 25 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began in January when Google reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone was uploading suspected child pornography to a Google Photos account, according to a police affidavit.
The account was traced to Berg’s home in Draper. An investigator from the task force looked at the Google file and “found approximately 30,000 images of child pornography in the Google account,” charging documents state.
The children in the pictures were between the ages of 5 and 13, according to the affidavit.
On Wednesday, investigators served a search warrant at Berg’s home. He told authorities that he had been viewing child pornography for nearly 20 years and searches for children as young as 8 years old, the affidavit states.
“Berg described the child pornography images he intentionally searched for and viewed as ‘classy stuff’ and admitted he had been intentionally viewing child pornography since at least 2001 or 2002,” charging documents state.
During a search of his desktop computer, approximately 19,000 images “similar to those found on his Google Photos account” were found in the recycle bin, the affidavit states.
Prosecutors noted in the charges that Berg is “a well-known and well-connected professional in the aviation industry, including having formerly served as the director of operations for Salt Lake International Airport,” and have requested he be held without bail, fearing he “can flee the state of Utah with ease.”
Berg, now retired, has been working with airports in Utah, California and Washington for 40 years.
“Berg served for nearly 15 years as director of airport operations for the Salt Lake City Department of Airports. In this position he was responsible for the daily operations of the Salt Lake City International Airport,” according to his bio on aeroplex.net.
After leaving the Salt Lake airport, Berg was the director of aviation for King County Washington at Boeing Field from 2016 to 2018.
The task force has requested that if Berg is able to make bail that he be forced to surrender his passport, wear a GPS ankle monitor, not be allowed to access the internet, and not have contact with anyone under the age of 18.
A spokeswoman with the Salt Lake airport declined comment Friday about his arrest.