Bellingham man enters plea in child sexual abuse material case
A Bellingham man pleaded guilty in Whatcom County Superior Court on Wednesday to two charges related to the possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Joshua Luke Reppert, 32, was arrested in May following a nearly yearlong investigation into possible possession of child sexual abuse material. Reppert was under Department of Corrections supervision when the investigation began, according to court records, as he was previously convicted of similar charges in Skagit County.
As part of the terms of his community custody, Reppert had to allow his supervising officer to search any of his cellular devices. During a search in 2024 an officer found images that appeared to be animated child sexual abuse material.
While this doesn’t meet the legal definition of a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct, court records state the officer was concerned Reppert also had child sexual abuse material involving actual minors on his two cell phones. A search by the Bellingham Police Department at that time only found the animated images.
However, in May 2025, BPD was assigned eight Cybertips by the National Center for Missing Endangered Children. The initial investigation linked seven tips from Google and one from X that appeared to involve the same suspect, later identified as Reppert.
X reported that the activity occurred during October 2024, according to court records, and Google reported that child sexual abuse material was stored in Google photos between October 2024 and May 2025. In total, there were 104 images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of a live child and 254 images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of an animated child.
Reppert’s sentencing was scheduled for Wednesday morning following his guilty plea, but the nature of the charges requires the Department of Corrections to conduct a pre-sentence investigation. A new sentencing date will be set once the investigation report is complete.
Report child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline online at report.cybertip.org or call 800-843-5678.
This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 1:11 PM.