Five are charged with 39 felonies; cases stem from national cyber tips and local search warrants

By Steve Mitchell, Ashland.news

A Rogue Valley operation targeting child exploitation led to the Wednesday, Sept. 3, arrest of an Ashland man accused of encouraging child sexual abuse.  

Ashland resident Shale Tiercel Pagel, 34, was among five suspects arrested on a total of 39 felony charges of encouraging child sexual abuse.

Other arrests were made in Medford, White City, and Eagle Point, according to a Wednesday press release from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. The press release said the cases are not connected.

Pagel, 34, was arrested at his home on the 80 block of Pine Street in Ashland, the release noted. According to a Tuesday, Sept. 2 indictment, Pagel is accused of five felony counts of second-degree encouraging child sexual abuse. Law enforcement officials found 682 images of child sexual abuse material in Pagel’s possession, according to the sheriff’s office.

The indictment alleges Pagel knowingly possessed visual recordings of sexually explicit conduct involving a child. It further says that he had been aware and consciously disregarded the fact that the creation of the visual recording of sexually explicit conduct involved child abuse.

Pagel’s arrest, along with the others, began with an investigation by the Southern Oregon Child Exploitation Team. The multi-agency task force includes the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon Department of Justice and the Medford Police Department.

The task force received tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tips led to subpoenas, followed by search warrants at the homes of the suspects. Authorities served Pagel with a search warrant in August of 2024, according to a post on the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. The task force served the warrant after discovering images of child exploitation were downloaded at Pagel’s home, the sheriff’s post said.

Other arrests

Kevin Lee Bratton, 46, of Eagle Point, was the first to be arrested by the task force. Bratton is accused of 10 felony counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse, the press release said.

Officials arrested David Richard Lubina, 40, of Medford, during a traffic stop in White City, the sheriff’s office said. Lubina is charged with six felony counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse. Investigators found 13 images of child sexual abuse at his home.

Authorities arrested Brandon Scott Matlock, 39, of Eagle Point, on nine felony counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse. The task force found 15 images of child sexual abuse at his home, officials said.

Officers arrested Margarito Baldazo Banuelos II, 19, of Medford, on four felony counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse and three felony counts of second-degree encouraging child sexual abuse. A cyber tip led investigators to a residence on Talent Avenue in Talent, where evidence was located, the sheriff’s office said. Officials allegedly found that Banuelos had 12 child sex abuse images.

Suspect faces extradition

Erik Thiel Rowe, 45, is in custody in Missouri and will be extradited to Oregon to face two first- and second-degree charges of encouraging child sexual abuse, the sheriff’s department said. Rowe had initially been served a search warrant in a converted school bus on a property in the 6500 block of Rogue River Highway in rural Grants Pass near the town of Rogue River. Task force investigators discovered Rowe had two images of child sex abuse, the press release said. According to the release, Rowe also has an outstanding felony warrant for a probation violation for second-degree sex abuse.

The press release pointed out that multiple law enforcement agencies helped the task force with Wednesday’s arrests. They include the Ashland Police Department, and police departments in Talent, Central Point and Eagle Point. Federal agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Marshals Service, Pacific Northwest, were also involved.

Email Ashland.news associate editor Steve Mitchell at stevem@ashland.news.