Crimes against Children 6-11-12

Chicago, IL
Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced today the arrest of a Sugar Grove, Illinois man for transportation of child pornography.

Dennis Houston, age 43, of the 3S500 block of Bliss Road in Sugar Grove, was arrested at his residence without incident last Thursday morning by special agents assigned to the Chicago FBI’s Innocent Images Task Force (IITF). Houston was charged in a criminal complaint filed June 6, 2012 in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of transportation of child pornography, which is a felony offense.

According to the complaint, on February 29, 2012, an undercover FBI agent assigned to work IITF cases and located in Maryland made online contact by way of a peer-to-peer file sharing network with another individual who was sharing two password-protected file folders on the network. The undercover agent began an online chat session with that person, during which the password to the two folders was provided to the undercover agent. Using that password, the agent downloaded approximately 20 image files and one video file from the shared folders. The files were reviewed by an agent assigned to the Chicago IITF, who determined that all of the downloaded files depicted what appeared to the agent to be child pornography.

Fresno, CA
United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Ramon Arturo Martinez, 53, of Fresno, pleaded guilty on Friday, June 8, 2012 to one count of receiving and sharing images of child pornography.

According to court documents, Martinez received images and videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Martinez received the child pornography on his computer via the Internet, and many of the minors depicted were prepubescent minors.

This case is the result of an extensive investigation by the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy R. Jehangiri and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Richards are prosecuting the case.

Pittsburgh, PA
United States Attorney Booth Goodwin today announced that a former computer technician for Roane County schools was sentenced to two years in federal prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release for possession of child pornography. Adam K. Seen, age 25, worked as an information technology specialist for Roane County schools before his arrest in 2009. Seen’s brother, Jacob T. Seen, age 23, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release. Both admitted that on December 3, 2009, they possessed more than 600 images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexual conduct. Jacob Seen admitted his collection included a video of a prepubescent minor involved in a sadistic or masochistic act or in sexual violence.

Jacob Seen also admitted he received and shared child pornography using a peer-to-peer file sharing program called LimeWire, which allows Internet users to download files from other people’s computers around the world. Peer-to-peer file sharing, which in the late 1990s became a popular way to share music files using programs such as Napster, has more recently become a common way to exchange child pornography.

“Crimes like this make me sick, and they make me angry,” said U.S. Attorney Goodwin. “There’s no other way to say it. To get pleasure from the sexual abuse of children is one of the most disgusting and shameful things imaginable.