Crimes against Children 9-27-12

Trenton, NJ
A Middlesex County man pleaded today to distributing images and videos of child pornography over the Internet, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Jacob Rios, 24, of Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with one count of distribution of child pornography.

Philadelphia, PA
Ronald Miko, 37, of Reading, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 38 months in prison for obstruction of a criminal investigation. Miko was a police officer in the city of Reading when he utilized a room in a house at which convicted federal defendants Paul Sewell and Michael Johnson operated a prostitution business that trafficked females who were under the age of 18. Between May 2, 2011 and June 7, 2011, Miko wired money to Johnson’s federal prison account to prevent the communication of information to criminal investigators regarding Miko’s involvement in that business.

Rochester, NY
U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Thomas Mehegan, 61, of Elmira, New York, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography before U.S. District Court Judge David G. Larimer. Each possession of child pornography count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and supervised release for life.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Gestring, who is handling the case, stated that Mehegan was identified during a New York State Police investigation. Troopers executed a search warrant at the defendant’s Elmira address and seized several digital computers and hard drives which contained child pornography. Police then contacted the Elmira Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which continued the investigation. During the investigation, law enforcement learned that the defendant had secreted a hidden camera in his home with the intent to surreptitiously record his adult step-daughter breast feeding her infant child. Mehegan was convicted of unlawful surveillance in Chemung County for this conduct in 2010 and was recently released from state prison.

Pocatello, UT
Wayne Allen Ginnis, 29, of Seattle, Washington, and James Russell Ashley, 47, of Augusta, Georgia, were sentenced yesterday in federal court in Pocatello for traveling in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, announced U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge sentenced Ginnis to 70 months in prison and Ashley to 54 months; both will be required to serve 10 years of supervised release. They pled guilty to a single-count information on June 5, 2012.

According to the plea agreements, the men admitted that they intended to have illicit sexual conduct with two girls they knew were under the age of 18. They also admitted to sending the girls bus tickets to travel from Idaho to Hollywood, California.

Albany, NY
Leonard Gaines, age 56, of Albany, New York, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino, in Albany to 108 months of imprisonment for distributing child pornography images, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Clifford C. Holly, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division. Gaines, who had entered a guilty plea on May 16, 2012, was also ordered to have no unsupervised contact with minors and to register with the New York State Sex Offender Registry Program.

On December 19, 2011, Gaines, using a file sharing program, distributed approximately 100 still images of child pornography over the Internet. On March 2, 2012, pursuant to a federal search warrant, investigators recovered two computers, each of which contained many child pornography files, from his home.