Hogsett Announces Floyd County Man Charged with Distributing Child Pornography

INDIANAPOLIS—United States Attorney Joseph H. Hogsett announced today the arrest and charging of a 46-year-old Greenville, Ind., man for transporting and possessing child pornography. Gary Booth was the target of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Indiana State Police, Kokomo Police Department, Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the Philadelphia Cyber Crime Task Force in Pennsylvania.

The criminal complaint alleges that on April 14, 2011, Booth transported images of actual minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct (child pornography) from his residence in Greenville to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by offering the images via a peer-to-peer file-sharing network of which he was a member. This information led to the execution of a search warrant on Booth’s residence on July 12, 2011. Numerous images of child pornography were discovered during a forensic preview of Booth’s home computer. Booth was arrested without incident yesterday at his place of work in Louisville, Kentucky.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. DeBrota, who is prosecuting the case for the government, Booth faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of these offenses. Booth will be detained in the custody of the United States Marshal until a preliminary hearing later today in New Albany, Indiana.

A criminal complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecutor 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.