Man Charged with Child Pornography After Taking Computer to Repair Shop

A 29-year-old man was charged with eight counts of child pornography months after he dropped his computer off at a Lake City, FL repair shop; his PC allegedly contained 100 pictures of minor’s nude and performing sex acts.

According to police reports, the store owner reported the incident to police on Jan. 19 . The computer was supposedly captured and submitted to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for analysis.

The man was apparently notified by the computer repair shop that his computer could not be fixed. He supposedly asked for his filed to be moved to another computer. Reports indicate the man gave thorough instructions for no one to view the file contents on his computer.

The shop owner allegedly discovered a myriad of pictures of supposed nude juveniles performing sex acts during the file transfer process.

The FDLE arrested the man on June 30 in Lafayette County and on Monday reported to the Lake City Police Department that 100 pictures were found on the PC. The man was supposedly living in Suwannee County when the alleged photos were initially found.

It is important to understand that essentially, nothing can be lost or permanently deleted from your computer. In any type of criminal or sex crimes case brought against you by the government, specialists will be hired to recover any and all data on your hard drive, which includes anything that you may have thought to have been deleted. Moreover, when you bring a computer into a shop to be repaired or upgraded, technicians are required by Florida law to report any material that appears to be child pornography.

Any type of Internet sex crime, especially those that include minors are usually felonies that carry minimum prison terms and the possibility of being a lifelong registered sex offender or predator. Downloading and/or viewing pornography featuring a minor is considered a third-degree felony and sharing the material escalates the charges to a second-degree felony. Producing and/or promoting child pornography is classified as a first-degree felony, which could place you behind bars for 5 to 13 years.

Being convicted of any child pornography charge will follow you for the remainder of your life, you will be required to register with your county’s police department and share private information that anyone who knows where to look can access. The Florida Child Pornography Defense Attorneys at Whittel & Melton can build your defense and start fighting your charges right away. There are many factors that can challenge the government’s case against you such as, how the evidence was obtained, how it came to be placed on the computer and how many people had access to the PC.

If you have been arrested and charged with possessing, promoting or distributing child pornography anywhere in the state of Florida, contact the Florida Sex Crimes Defense Attorneys at Whittel & Melton online or call our Gainesville office at 352-264-7800 or our Ocala office at 352-369-5334 or even reach us toll-free at 866-608-5529.