OAKLAND – LawFuel – US Law News – United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that Kenneth Gibson, 42, of Martinez, California, was indicted today on one count of transporting child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. Mr. Gibson, a Wells Fargo Bank vice president and former youth soccer coach, was first identified when the Jackson Police Department in Tennessee recovered a stolen laptop computer containing images of child pornography that Mr. Gibson had sent to the computer’s owner.
According to court documents, Mr. Gibson utilized the Google Internet application “Hello” to chat and trade child pornography images with other individuals. A flash drive seized from his home on March 13, 2007, contained hundreds of additional images of child pornography, including images of prepubescent children being subjected to bondage and sexual torture.
Transportation of child pornography, Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252(a)(1), carries a five-year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment, a twenty-year maximum prison sentence, a maximum fine of $250,000, and a maximum term of supervised release of life. Possession of child pornography, Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252(a)(4)(B), carries a ten-year maximum term of imprisonment, a maximum fine of $250,000, and a maximum term of supervised release of life.
The investigation, part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood, is a result of the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Memphis Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the Jackson Police Department in Tennessee. Project Safe Childhood is a national initiative launched last year by the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at combining federal, state and local law enforcement resources in order to bring more online child exploitation prosecutions, and to educate the public about the dangers that the Internet poses to children.
Michelle Morgan-Kelly, the District’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator, is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case, with the assistance of legal assistant Cynthia Daniel.
Further Information:
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/ (click on the link for “to retrieve documents from the court”).
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay@usdoj.gov.
