Clifton, New Jersey Man Sentenced to Seven-and-a-Half Years in Prison for Possession of Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 10, 2010 |
NEWARK, NJ—A Clifton man was sentenced today to 90 months in prison for possession of child pornography after being caught looking at criminal images in a public library, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Jorge L. Salas, 36, pleaded guilty in November 2009 to a one-count Information before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton, who also imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Salas admitted that on October 28, 2008, he viewed and downloaded child pornography onto flash drives from two computers in the library at the Passaic County Community College. He was arrested, with three flash drives in his possession, when he returned to the library on November 12, 2008. Salas admitted that he had approximately 215 videos and 5,000 images containing child pornography from the Internet, and that the videos and images portrayed individuals less than 18 years of age engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including numerous minors under the age of 12.
In addition to the prison term, Wigenton sentenced Salas to 10 years of supervised release. In determining a sentence, Wigenton consulted the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant’s criminal history, if any, and other factors. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited Special Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Newark Innocent Images Unit, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward, and police officers with the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lakshmi Srinivasan Herman of the Criminal Division in Newark.