Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts in Houston, Texas

April 30, 2007

ROCKPORT RESIDENT PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES

[CORPUS CHRISTI] – John Ryan Johnson, 31, has been convicted of receiving and distributing child pornography via the internet and faces a mandatory minimum of five years imprisonment without parole, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.

At a hearing this morning before United States District Judge Janis Graham Jack, Johnson of Rockport, TX plead guilty to having received and distributed an image of child pornography between November 3, 2006 and February 9, 2007. The investigation that lead to Johnson’s arrest and today’s conviction began in December 2006 when an undercover FBI agent conducting an internet search for child pornography on a peer to peer file sharing program, downloaded five images of suspected child pornography from a particular IP address. Further investigation revealed the IP address was associated with a Rockport, TX residence.

The FBI, with assistance of the Corpus Christi Police Department, the Rockport Police Department, and the Aransas County Sheriff’s Office, secured and executed a search warrant at the home of John Ryan Johnson in February 2007 and discovered images of child pornography on a computer owned and used by John Johnson. Johnson confessed to sending and receiving child pornography via the internet. Today in open court, Johnson admitted to receiving and distributing an image of child pornography depicting a female child less than twelve years of age. A forensic examination of Johnson’s computer resulted in the discovery of over 600 images – photographs and videos – of child pornography in Johnson’s possession. Many of the images depicted adults performing sexual acts on children under the age of 12. Others depicted the children in lascivious exhibitions. Some of the children depicted in the photographs and videos have been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Johnson, who has been in federal custody without bond since his arrest in March 2007, will remain in federal custody pending his sentencing set for July 12, 2007 at 3:00 p.m.

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