Georgia Man Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Sending Child Pornography over the Internet

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GERALD ALAN HARRIS, 52, was sentenced today (August 11, 2008) by United States District Judge SIDNEY H. STEIN in Manhattan federal court to nine years in prison for transporting child pornography over the Internet. HARRIS pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2007. According to documents filed in the case and statements made during HARRIS’ guilty plea:

From June 22, 2007 to July 13, 2007, HARRIS, who lives in Georgia, engaged in several instant messaging “chats” on the Internet with individuals purporting to be a thirty-three-year-old mother in the Bronx and her twelve-year-old daughter. In fact, an undercover detective from the New York City Police Department was posing as both the mother and the daughter. During the course of these conversations, HARRIS sent the “mother” and “daughter” multiple images of child pornography, some of which depicted explicit sexual acts between minors and adults, via electronic mail. HARRIS also graphically described to the “mother” and “daughter” the sexual activities he planned to engage in with the “mother” and the “daughter” when they met in person.

HARRIS arranged to meet the “mother” and the “daughter” at a coffee shop in the Bronx on July 13, 2007. When HARRIS arrived at the prearranged location, he was arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and members of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”).

Following HARRIS’s arrest, FBI agents executed a search warrant for HARRIS’s residence in Georgia. The agents seized computer equipment from which multiple images of child pornography were recovered.

In addition to the prison term, Judge STEIN sentenced HARRIS to five years of supervised release.

Mr. GARCIA praised the investigative work of FBI agents in New York and Georgia, and the NYPD. He also thanked the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for its cooperation in the investigation of this case.

Assistant United States Attorney CHRISTIAN R. EVERDELL is in charge of the prosecution.

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