Prior Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Federal Child Pornography Offense

In July 2010, Jordan Earl Madison, Jr., a 49-year-old Albuquerque resident, was indicted on federal distribution, receipt, and possession of child pornography charges. This morning, Madison entered a guilty plea to distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography before United States Magistrate Judge W. Daniel Schneider under a plea agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office. Madison specifically admitted to distributing and attempting to distribute a video depicting a prepubescent male child engaged in sexually explicit conduct with an adult male as charged in Count 1 of the indictment.

United States Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said the charges against Madison stem from a March 2010 undercover operation by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office (NMAGO) aimed at identifying those who possess, receive and distribute child pornography. According to the plea agreement, on March 2, 2010 and as part of that undercover operation, a NMAGO investigator connected with Madison’s computer, which was offering child pornography images through a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing program, and obtained images of child pornography, including the video described in Count 1 of the indictment. On March 18, 2010, special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and NMAGO investigators executed a search warrant at Madison’s residence and recovered a computer and computer hard-drives containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The plea agreement indicates that forensic examination of Madison’s computer and hard-drives uncovered more than 1630 images and 29 videos of child pornography.

On March 18, 2010, Madison admitted to FBI agents and NMAGO investigators that he used a P2P file-sharing program to obtain child pornography and that he had been receiving child pornography since September 2009. In his plea agreement, Madison admits that he previously had been convicted of attempted molestation of a child in the Pima County Superior Court of Arizona.

Madison has been in custody since his arrest on August 3, 2010. At sentencing, Madison faces a term of not less than 15 years’ and not more than 40 years’ imprisonment, a maximum fine of $250,000 and a lifetime term of supervised release. Madison also will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

The case was investigated by the NMAGO and the FBI. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Charlyn Rees and was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the 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, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The case also was brought as part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force whose mission it is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico. There are 59 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies associated with the Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the NMAGO. Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement.