Date: 01-06-2017

Case Style:

Case Number: 2:17-cr-00039-VJ1

Judge: VJ

Court: United States District Court for the District of New Mexico (Dona Ana County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: Marisa A. Ong

Defendant's Attorney: Peter Edwards - FPD

Description: Las Cruces, NM - Alamogordo Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Child Pornography Charge

William Allen Patterson, 34, of Alamogordo, N.M., pled to a federal child pornography charge. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Patterson will be sentenced to 78 months in prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court. Patterson will also be required to register as a sex offender when he completes his prison sentence.

Patterson was arrested on August 10, 2016, on a criminal complaint alleging that he possessed and received visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit activity from 2002 to 2012 and Aug. 10, 2016, in Otero County, N.M. According to the criminal complaint, the investigation into Patterson began in Aug. 2016, after Patterson admitted to a polygraph examiner that he was addicted to child pornography while undergoing a polygraph examination as part of the application process to be a Border Patrol Agent. On Aug. 9, 2016, law enforcement searched Patterson’s residence and found a hard drive containing at least 10,000 images of child pornography.

During today’s proceedings, Patterson pled guilty to a felony information charging him with receiving child pornography. In entering the guilty plea, Patterson admitted that on Aug. 9, 2016, he possessed a hard drive that contained numerous images and videos of child pornography which he had downloaded from the internet. Patterson remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of Homeland Security Investigations and the Las Cruces Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa A. Ong of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s 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, visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ [external link].

The case also was brought as a part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force’s mission, which is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico. There are 82 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies associated with the New Mexico ICAC Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General. Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement. ruces, NM - Alamogordo Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Child Pornography Charge

Outcome: Plea Agreement Requires Imposition of 78-Month Prison Sentence; Prosecution Brought Under Project Safe Childhood

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