News Releases and Statements

Paul Michael Barbour, 33, who previously worked for Cypress-based Kids Artistic Review (KAR), is scheduled to be sentenced October 20, 2014. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

Juan Carlos Alvarez, 34, of Egg Harbor Township, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree distribution of child pornography and third-degree possession of more than 100 files of child pornography before Superior Court Judge Bernard E. DeLury Jr.

David Waldrop, 56, of Luling, Texas, was sentenced Monday to 76 months in federal prison by Senior U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey, to be immediately followed by 10 years of supervised release.

Matthew C. Harbin, 28, of Arab, Alabama, is a convicted felon who pleaded guilty in 2009 to state charges of transmitting obscene material to a minor. He is the latest fugitive to be profiled on the ICE smartphone app, seeking public tips on at-large and unknown child predator suspects.

Derrick Gossett, 33, originally arrested on state charges, was taken into custody on child pornography allegations Sept. 6, 2013. He made his initial appearance shortly thereafter and was ordered into custody, where he has remained since that time.

The HER​O​ Child-Rescue Corps internship is a private-public partnership between the National Association to Protect Children (PROTECT), HSI and U.S. Special Operations Command, in which carefully selected veterans are trained in digital forensics and child exploitation work and then embedded in HSI field offices around the country.

Matthew Tinkle, 27, of Heber Springs, was initially indicted with two counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Gary Kent, 41, of Dresher, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge R. Padova. He was indicted by a federal grand jury May 30, 2013 and pleaded guilty January 24, 2014 to one count each of distribution of child pornography and possession of child exploitation material.

In addition, Franklin Stuart King, 40, was ordered to serve a life term of supervision and register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

Daniel M. Layne, 34, was sentenced to a total of 300 months in prison by U.S. District Judge David Hittner. Evidence presented at the hearing established that Layne had been communicating via the Internet with underage girls and discussing engaging in sexual activity with them.

Robert Miller, 65, of Hackensack, faces felony charges distributing images of child pornography over the Internet. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor in Newark federal court Wednesday afternoon and was ordered held without bail.

John Richard Balyo, 34, of Grand Rapids, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and up to a maximum of 50 years.

Arleigh Joe Esqueda, 35, of Newton, Iowa, pleaded guilty to the charge and received an immediate sentence on one count of knowingly possessing child pornography that included images of prepubescent children under 12.

Timothy Beaver, 49, was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine, to forfeit the computer equipment he used to commit the office and to serve a life term of supervised release.

Roy Palomera, 24, was sentenced Monday by Senior U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii. In addition to the prison term, Ishii ordered Palomera to pay $5,000 in restitution to one victim whose images he possessed.

The 14 new arrests, made from Feb. 10 through July 22, include two school bus drivers who drove children in the community of Mays Landing and a Salem County man, Michael Van Culin, who allegedly hacked into the email account of a 16-year-old Canadian girl and used personal information he obtained to blackmail her into stripping naked on a webcam while he recorded her.

According to court documents, in November 2013, Kenneth A. Brauckmann used a social networking website to contact a user he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, but in actuality, was an undercover Fairfax County police detective. Through online chats and text messages with the user, Brauckmann made arrangements to engage in sexual activity with her and her 13-year-old friend in his car.

Frank Edwin Ness, 44, of Joplin, Missouri, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury. Ness' indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against him on July 17.

A federal grand jury in Peoria, Illinois, returned an indictment July 22 charging Shannon Logan, 35, of Urbana, with distributing, receiving and possessing child pornography. The indictment alleges that from March 5 to May 30, Logan traded images on the Internet of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Christopher James Swicegood, 22, was found by HSI special agents to be a user of a foreign website used extensively by traders of child pornography. A lead from foreign law enforcement initiated the investigation in January 2013, which uncovered evidence of not only child pornography but actual sexual conduct with children, according to court records.

Michael Brian Grzybowicz, 30, of Cocoa, was also sentenced to a lifetime term of supervision following his release. A federal jury found Grzybowicz guilty of producing, distributing and possessing child pornography. He was also sentenced to another 10-year prison term to run concurrent to the 30-year sentence.

Justin Stevens, 31, was also ordered to serve 25 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender.

Joseph Edgar Brown, of Seattle, pleaded guilty to the charge in May. Prosecutors say it was a tip from Google to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that led investigators to look into email accounts used to distribute child pornography, including images of adults raping infants.

HSI special agents arrested Andy Misael Campos-Rivera, 30, after a referral from the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit led to an investigation that revealed that a person with Campos-Rivera's computer Internet Protocol address logged on to the Internet and shared child pornography on numerous occasions.

Charles Franklin Hudson Jr., 38, of Jacksonville, faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years and up to 30 years in federal prison and a potential life term of supervised release on each count. He was arrested in Jacksonville Jan. 8, and has been in custody since that time.