A Pueblo County sheriff’s deputy fired for misconduct is accused of sexually assaulting children in a movie theater and at his home, and allegedly possessing around one million child sexual abuse materials, court documents obtained by The Gazette show.

The initial report of alleged sexual assault on a child by Andrew Ward led to him being placed on paid administrative leave from his detention deputy position Jan. 9 until he was fired Jan. 13.

Detectives from the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office began their investigation when the report was received Dec. 23.

In interviews with law enforcement, two children recounted a combined several dozen instances of Ward illegally touching them at his home, other residences and at least one movie theater. All of the instances took place before 2021.

The first instance was reported by a child in 2019, five years after Ward began work as a detention deputy with the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office.

Ward denied all allegations in an interview with detectives on Jan. 9 in his home, after being offered to talk “at his residence or at the office.” In addition to the denial, Ward allegedly said he is not a “porn site kind of person” and watches it “maybe a couple times a year.”

At the end of the interview, detectives informed Ward he was being placed on administrative leave and he surrendered his agency-issued firearm and ammunition.

Hundreds of thousands of child sex abuse materials were recovered by the Sheriff’s Office in a search warrant executed on the same day, shortly after the interview.

Twenty-two electronic devices, two stacks of CDs, a box of CDs and DVDs, a notebook and physical mail were all collected by law enforcement, containing at least 500,000 child sexual abuse materials but “likely closer to” one million.

One external drive had around 367,000 pieces of material that were last accessed the day before the search warrant was executed. Another hard drive had thousands of photos of a redacted name playing football, which the detective describes as “more than any parent would even take of their own child.”

A detective wrote in the arrest affidavit that an exact total was “not feasible” due to the volume of media and the detective requested approval for additional electronic devices to be removed.

Ward is facing two counts of sexual assault on a child under 15 years old by a person in a position of trust and 13 counts of sexual exploitation relating to the materials he allegedly possessed.

He has not posted his $500,000 bail from the Pueblo County jail as of Monday afternoon. Ward will make his first appearance in court Feb. 23.