Retired Attorney Pleads Guilty to Receipt of Child Pornography

August 30, 2010 United States Attorney's Office
District of New Mexico
In July 2009, Robert A. Warren, a 70-year-old retired attorney who resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was indicted on federal receipt of child pornography charges. This morning, Warren pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography before United States District Judge Bruce D. Black under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Warren specifically admitted to receiving a three (3) minute and fifteen (15)-second video depicting an adult male performing sexual acts on a young prepubescent female.
According to the plea agreement, special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recovered multiple computers and computer-related media (i.e., hard drives, compact disks, printed images) containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct (child pornography) when they executed a search warrant at Warren’s residence on June 18, 2010. As part of his guilty plea, Warren agreed to forfeit the computers and computer-related media seized from his residence. The plea agreement indicates that forensic examination of Warren’s computers and computer media uncovered more than 2600 images and 26 videos of child pornography.
At sentencing, Warren faces a term of five to 20 years' imprisonment, a maximum fine of $250,000, and a lifetime term of supervised release. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Warren and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have agreed to recommend that Warren be imprisoned for at least five years and not more than nine years. Warren also will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison. Warren was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service immediately after entering his guilty plea as required by the plea agreement.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said: "What we can never forget in these child pornography cases is that there are real children—little boys and little girls—who were horribly abused in order to manufacture these images of child sexual abuse. Their lives were unalterably scarred for the viewing pleasure of persons that are attracted to this type of material, the demand for which creates a worldwide market for the images and for the abuse they contain. Each and every time someone views a pornographic image of a child, that child is victimized again. We cannot falter in aggressively pursuing these cases. I commend the team of investigators and prosecutors that worked hard on addressing the issues in this case."
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Charlyn Rees and Sasha Siemel, and was investigated by FBI in partnership with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This 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 Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.