Anti-Child Pornography Digest 5-22-12

Fresno, CA
Michael Scott Cooper, 43, of Bakersfield, pleaded guilty today to possession of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to the plea agreement, Cooper possessed images and videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Cooper possessed the child pornography on his computer, and many of the images depicted prepubescent minors.

Cooper was a teacher at Loudan Elementary School in Bakersfield. He was arrested on October 7, 2010. He has been out of custody on electronic monitoring with various restrictions, including access to children, computers, and the Internet. Cooper was immediately taken into the custody upon entry of his guilty plea today.

Washington, D.C. 
Former U.S. Navy Seaman James Driver, 24, of Midland, Michigan, was convicted today by a federal jury in the Eastern District of Michigan on one count of possession of child pornography, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

According to court documents and testimony presented during the trial, the case originated from a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigation into an individual, later identified as James Driver, suspected of possessing and distributing child pornography using a peer-to-peer file sharing network. Driver, who at the time was a U.S. Navy seaman stationed in Japan, admitted in an interview to being interested in child pornography for the past five years.

Fresno, CA
United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill sentenced Timothy David Bodine, 35, of Lindsay, today to three years and five months in prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, for possessing visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to court documents, Bodine possessed images and videos on his computer that depicted minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Many of the minors depicted were prepubescent.

Greenbelt, MD
Chief U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Nestor Gualteros, age 39, of Silver Spring, Maryland, today to five years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for transporting child pornography. Judge Chasanow ordered that upon his release from prison, Gualteros must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

According to his plea agreement, from at least April 2009, Gualteros belonged to groups on a social networking site that was under investigation by law enforcement for the trafficking of child pornography. On August 3, 2010, Gualteros was interviewed by law enforcement and confessed to distributing and receiving child pornography, including images of prepubescent children, from his desktop computer at his place of employment in Herndon, Virginia. Gualteros also advised that he downloaded child pornography onto two flash drives that he kept hidden underneath his desk drawer at his place of employment. In December of 2009, Gualteros transported his work computer from his place of employment in Virginia to his residence in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he continued to view child pornography. The evidence showed that Gualteros distributed over 900 images to 15 different groups on the social networking site.

 Alton, MA
An Alton man, Robert P. Ridenour, pled guilty on May 22, 2012, to a three-count Indictment charging him with receipt of child pornography (count one), distribution of child pornography (count two), and possession of child pornography (count three), the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Because Ridenour has a prior conviction for aggravated criminal sexual assault involving a minor, the penalties for the charged offenses increase. Ridenour faces a term of imprisonment on either or both of counts one and two of not less than 15 years but not more than 40 years, a fine up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of five years to life. Ridenour faces a term of imprisonment on count three of not less than 10 years but not more than 20 years, a fine up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of five years to life. Sentencing is scheduled for September 28, 2012 in East St. Louis, Illinois. Ridenour has been held without bond on this charge since March 2, 2012.

The violations were discovered when officers conducting a sex offender compliance check went to the residence that Ridenour shared with other individuals. Ridenour is a registered sex offender as a result of a conviction for predatory criminal sexual assault in 1997 in Madison County, Illinois. A preliminary review of a computer owned by Ridenour revealed images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the “My Pictures” folder on the computer. Ridenour gave officers consent to seize and search a desktop computer and a flash drive plugged into it. Forensic reviews of the desktop computer and the flash drive revealed several hundred images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.