By Amy Clancy 
 
 Fifty-seven year old James Christopher Rivers, a longtime audio engineer who has toured with Queensryche, Whitesnake, Bad Company, Three Dog Night and more – was charged in King County Superior Court on Monday with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. 
 
 Rivers also taught audio classes at the Art Institute of Seattle for more than 26 years, according to his LinkedIn page. 
 
 Rivers first came to the attention of the FBI last week after he sent his laptop computer to a Cleveland, Ohio, company “to wipe pornography,” because Rivers “was having problems with his wife and did not want her to divorce him over pornography that was on the computer.” 
 
 When the technician began working on the laptop, “he came across two videos that appeared to depict child pornography.” 
 
 According to police documents, the videos show Rivers carefully placing recording equipment in a bathroom. 
 
 In one video, the recording device is hidden in a tissue box, and records video of a young girl getting into the shower. 
 
 “The recording device is positioned to capture the genital and chest area of the child,” the documents reveal. 
 
 In the second video, the recording device is placed “on a bathroom counter…to record towards the bathtub.” The video runs more than 14 minutes, and shows a young girl taking a bath. 
 
 The Cleveland computer company contacted the FBI as soon as the videos were discovered, and an investigation was launched. 
 
 Kent police arrested Rivers at a recording and rehearsal studio in Sumner last Thursday, but he bailed-out of jail the next day. 
 
 When reached at his home in Kent Monday, Rivers declined to comment. 
 
 But Drew Newman, a student at the Arts Institute of Seattle said Rivers was a quiet, wise teacher who had great career advice for his students. 
 
 “Instead of, this is how you do it from the book’s perspective, he would tell us about his experiences, where he’s been,” Newman told KIRO 7. 
 
 Newman was surprised to hear about Rivers' arrest but said, “We don’t know the whole story.” 
 
 Kent police seized additional computers and electronics from Rivers’ home, which are being forensically examined. 
 
 Rivers will appear in court on Oct. 27. 

 Police: Man tried to hide child porn from wife, busted by computer tech Kent man accused of making child pornography 
 
 James Rivers hoped to avoid an awkward moment with his wife. 
 
 Safe to say, the pornography sweep of his MacBook Pro didn’t go as planned. 
 
 Rather than help Rivers hide offending photos from the missus, a computer technician hired by the Kent man went to authorities after he found what appeared to be homemade child pornography on the laptop computer. 
 
 Kent police and King County prosecutors claim to have confirmed the tech’s suspicions – Rivers, they say, was making child pornography. The 57-year-old is alleged to have admitted recording the videos. 
 
 Rivers “went to great lengths to destroy evidence of his exploitation and possession of depictions of images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Cecelia Gregson said in charging papers. 
 
 A day after the suspected child pornography was discovered, police were at Rivers’ home securing his electronics and arresting him. He has since been released from jail after posting bond on $300,000 bail. 
 
 Writing the court, a Kent police detective said her department launched an investigation on Oct. 8 after the computer technician went to the FBI with his concerns. The man told investigators Rivers hired him to wipe his computer. 
 
 “Rivers advised that he was having problems with his wife and did not want her to divorce him over pornography that was on the computer,” the Kent detective said in charging papers, recounting her interview with the technician. 
 
 Beginning his work on Oct. 8, the technician soon found a stash of photos tucked behind a partition written into the hard drive. He’d been told not to view the photos “under any circumstances,” he said in an interview with police, but did so anyway. 
 
 The technician found two concerning videos shortly thereafter. According to charging papers, both showed Rivers setting up a camera that then recorded a young girl using the bathroom. 
 
 He contacted the FBI immediately. A special agent identified Rivers and the girl shortly thereafter, and contacted Kent police. Police swiftly obtained a search warrant for Rivers’ home, which they searched Oct. 9. 
 
 Rivers’ wife told investigators she had a “gut feeling that something was not right,” the detective said in court papers. 
 
 During a fight four days before, she threatened to have his computer searched for child pornography, according to charging papers. A day later, the laptop was in a FedEx box, headed for Ohio. 
 
 An audio engineer by trade, Rivers was arrested at his workplace in Sumner. Police contend Rivers admitted to making the recordings. The detective said Rivers also admitted to sexually assaulting a child. 
 
 “He maintained that he was on medication and had drunk wine, causing him to black out during the incident,” the detective said in charging papers. 
 
 Rivers has been charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, a crime better known as production of child pornography. He has not yet entered a plea.
– Apparently worried that the porn stash on his MacBook might get him in hot water with his wife, James Rivers hired a computer tech to wipe the computer. But, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports, the tech instead discovered homemade child porn hidden on Rivers' hard drive, which promptly got Rivers in very real trouble with the law. "Rivers advised that he was having problems with his wife and did not want her to divorce him over pornography that was on the computer," says a police detective in Washington state, where Rivers is facing two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. In court documents, his wife told police she had a "gut feeling that something was not right" and had recently threatened to have his computer searched. Police say they found a pair of videos that show Rivers setting up a camera that then recorded a young girl taking a shower, and another of her taking a bath. The 57-year-old Rivers is an audio engineer who has toured with the likes of Bad Company, Queensryche, Three Dog Night, and Whitesnake, notes KIRO; he's taught at the Art Institute of Seattle for more than two decades. Rivers is currently free on $300,000 bond; police are examining additional computers that belong to him.