LOS ANGELES – The lengthening arms of U.S. child porn hunting have stretched to the U.S. Border Patrol, where an El Centro sector agent's personal computer and files have been seized amidst a worldwide crackdown.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the unnamed agent is one of an estimated 130 people in the San Diego area under suspicion regarding child porn activity.
None have been arrested at this writing, the newspaper reported, but among those under suspicion are said to be a priest who has taken a leave of absence from his post, after authorities seized his computer and searched his parish office as part of the probe.
These actions are said to be part of Operation Predator, an American effort to take down a child porn ring said to be based in Belarus and charging members for child porn Website access, the Union-Tribune said.
In other news on the battle against child porn:
DES MOINES, IOWA– Former Iowa State assistant basketball coach Randy Brown was ordered to the slammer at once by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled last week that federal law required he go behind bars immediately following his April guilty plea for receiving child porn. A federal judge had allowed Brown to stay free on bond on grounds of "extraordinary circumstances," including his ongoing treatment for depression. Brown resigned in March 2003, after investigators seized his home and work computers in the case.
CUMMING, Ga.– A 16-year-old boy from this Atlanta suburb has been arrested for possessing child porn on his home computer, after a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to tip off Forsyth County authorities. The county sheriff charged him with child porn after seizing his computer and finding "several thousand images, some illegal and some… not," on the hard drive.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. –Two men at the University of South Alabama – one a hospital pediatrician who resigned last week, and one a retired professor of speech pathology – are in child porn trouble. Dr. Cris Wayne Cole was arrested May 20 after technicians found apparent child porn on his computer. He has also been charged with sodomy, involving contacts with two boys aged 15 at the time. On the same day as Cole's arrest, Stephen Hood pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing 10 computer discs containing child porn. He's free pending his August 23 sentencing.
PALATINE, ILL. – A Palatine man's Internet life is now under court restriction to job-hunting activities, after he pleaded not guilty to child porn possession. Dennis Dlask is also barred from having any unsupervised contact with children. Prosecutors wanted him barred entirely from the Internet, but his attorney persuaded a Cook County Associate judge to allow him to stay in cyberspace solely to look for work.
