Federal Felony Child Pornography Reduced to Probation with 3 years in Prison – U.S. v Mr. D (DMC No. 12883) (United States District Court, District of Arizona No. 2:14-CR-019396-SRB): Mr. D worked for a local wireless company. FBI Agents were running a software program in order to search Bit Torrent P2P networks for IP addresses that were file sharing child pornography. A hit came up on the Cox network with the IP address registered to Mr. D. It indicated that there were 19 images of child pornography which had been downloaded and distributed.
The FBI executed a search warrant at Mr. D’s residence and they found numerous computers. When they interviewed Mr. D he denied ever searching specific child pornography websites, but he did search for some terms which could be linked with child pornography. Subsequent searches revealed numerous images of child pornography on his computers.
We were brought into the case and we immediately had our forensic experts analyze Mr. D’s computers. Although these computers had five secured wireless access points, it was still possible that somebody else may have used his system and downloaded the images of child pornography. Because of the potential defenses, the Prosecutor offered Probation with 3 years of prison. The initial offer was for 10 years of prison, and if Mr. D would have gone to trial and lost on all counts, he would have spent the rest of his life in prison.