Slidell Man Arrested for Receiving Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 21, 2011 |
NEW ORLEANS, LA—FORREST B. SMITH, 76, of Slidell, Louisiana, was arrested by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday, July 21, 2011, on a criminal complaint charging him with crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children, announced United States Attorney Jim Letten.
According to documents filed in federal court, SMITH downloaded over 12,000 images and 1,000 videos depicting minors, including infants, engaged in sexually explicit conduct. SMITH then shared, or distributed, some of these images with others. Additionally, SMITH allegedly created a fake profile on a social networking website in which he represented himself to be a young male, and he used the profile to join various “groups” geared towards minors.
Today, SMITH was brought before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan who remanded him to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. SMITH will appear tomorrow before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan for a detention hearing scheduled at 2:00 p.m..
If convicted, SMITH faces a maximum term of five years’ imprisonment and a maximum penalty of 20 years, followed by up to a lifetime term of supervised release, and a $250,000.00 fine. SMITH can also be required to register as a sex offender.
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 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.
This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg.