Jacksonville, Florida - United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Arnold Bernard Conrad, Jr. (52, Jacksonville) to four years and four months in federal prison for possessing child pornography. The Court also ordered him to serve a five-year term of supervision following his release, register as sex offender, forfeit his computer media, and pay $9,000 in restitution to three victims. Conrad pleaded guilty on Nov. 12, 2014.
According to court documents, a detective with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office began an undercover investigation to identify individuals that were trading images and videos depicting child pornography over the Internet. The detective determined that a particular computer in Jacksonville was hosting and trading images of child pornography using a peer-to-peer file sharing program. The subscriber information for the computer was traced back to Conrad’s Jacksonville residence, where a search warrant was subsequently executed, and his computer media was seized. During an interview with agents, Conrad admitted to having used two different programs to download child pornography from the Internet, saving it to external hard drives, and that he had been doing so for almost two years. A forensic analysis of Conrad’s computer media revealed that it contained 504 images and 145 videos depicting child pornography, including at least one video depicting a nude toddler being sexually assaulted.
“Working with strong law enforcement partners, like the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, allows our HSI special agents to remove criminals like this from our communities," said Susan L. McCormick, special agent in charge of HSI Tampa.
This case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.
It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
