Jacksonville Man Indicted by Federal Grand Jury for Receiving Child Pornography Over the Internet

JACKSONVILLE, FL—United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that Shaun Andrew Copenhaver (28, Jacksonville) was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on three counts of receiving child pornography over the Internet. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years, up to 20 years in federal prison on each of the three counts. Copenhaver was arrested pursuant to a criminal complaint on February 6, 2014. On February 10, 2014, he was ordered detained pending the resolution of the case. His arraignment is scheduled for February 19, 2014, at 2:00 p.m., before United States Magistrate Judge Monte C. Richardson.

According to the criminal complaint, on February 6, 2014, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office executed a federal search warrant at Copenhaver’s residence after conducting an undercover online investigation. Copenhaver was at the residence and was interviewed by agents. During the interview, Copenhaver indicated that he used a particular file sharing program and certain search terms to search for and download child pornography videos “many times” and that he had saved child pornography to his hard drive on his desktop computer. He stated that the hard drive was encrypted with a password and that he knew child pornography would be discovered on the drive. An onsite examination of one of Copenhaver’s computer disk drives revealed that it contained child pornography.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

It is another case 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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.