Reno Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Possessing Child Pornography

RENO—A Reno man has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for his guilty plea to possession of child pornography, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

Steven Cooper, 28, was sentenced on Thursday, February 3, 2011, by U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks to 36 months' imprisonment, to be followed by 20 years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service. Cooper was indicted on February 10, 2010, and pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on August 12, 2010.

According to the court records, Cooper became a suspect in the child pornography investigation after undercover law enforcement officers observed an Internet protocol (IP) address with over 100 files containing child pornography available for download. Further investigation revealed the IP address was assigned to Cooper. A search warrant was obtained and executed on January 26, 2010. Computers and related equipment were seized and forensically examined and revealed the presence of over 200 images and 300 videos containing child pornography. Cooper was interviewed and admitted he had knowingly viewed and downloaded child pornography from the Internet since the age of 15 years and had kept the downloaded images. Some of the images were of prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit and sadistic and masochistic conduct.

The defendant was permitted to self-report to federal prison on Friday, April 8, 2011.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Innocent Images Task Force with assistance from the Nevada Attorney General’s Office and the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ronald C. Rachow and Carla B. Higginbotham.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the U.S. Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals, who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.