Albuquerque Man Arraigned on Federal Child Pornography Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 20, 2013 |
ALBUQUERQUE—William Winzenburg, Jr., 27, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was arraigned this morning on an indictment charging him with child pornography offenses.
During this morning’s proceedings, Winzenburg entered a not guilty plea to the four-count indictment that charges him with two counts of receiving visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and two counts of possession of a visual depiction of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. According to the indictment, Winzenburg received child pornography in November 2012 and possessed child pornography in February 2013. The four offenses allegedly occurred in Bernalillo County.
Winzenburg was arrested on February 7, 2013, on a criminal complaint filed by the FBI based on an investigation initiated by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) in November 2013 after receiving information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a specific IP address was being used to receive child pornography. According to the criminal complaint, after the investigation revealed that the IP address was subscribed to Winzenburg, on February 7, 2013, the FBI and BCSO executed a search warrant at Wenzenburg’s residence and seized computers and computer-related media that allegedly contained child pornography.
Winzenburg has been in federal custody since his arrest and remains detained pending trial, which has yet to be scheduled.
If convicted, Winzenburg faces a maximum penalty of not less than 15 years or more than 40 years in prison on each of the two receipt of child pornography charges. If convicted on the possession of child pornography charges, Winzenburg faces a maximum penalty of not less than 10 years or more than 20 years in prison. The sentencing exposure on the child pornography charges is enhanced as a result of Winzenburg’s prior sexual abuse conviction.
The case was investigated by the FBI, BCSO, and the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlyn E. Rees. It was brought 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, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.
The Operation 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 64 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies associated with the ICAC Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office. Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement.
Charges in indictments and criminal complaints are merely accusations. All criminal defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.