Delano Unified School Technology Employee Indicted

FRESNO, CA—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that a grand jury returned an indictment yesterday against Lonny Ray Haycock, 30, of Bakersfield, charging him with three counts of the sexual exploitation of minors and two counts of receipt and distribution of images of child pornography.

Anyone who might have information should contact the FBI office in Bakersfield at 661-323-9665.

According to court documents, Haycock distributed images of child pornography to undercover FBI agents in Philadelphia and Sacramento on two different dates in November 2010, and he told them that he would share additional images of child pornography that he had produced. Investigators determined that Haycock was stealing an unsecured wireless Internet signal from a neighbor in Bakersfield. When investigators went to Haycock’s residence on December 3, 2010, they noticed security cameras that had been set up to monitor the residence. Haycock arrived at his residence from his employment at Delano Unified School District, where he worked as an Information Technology specialist, and initially provided consent to search his computers. Agents confirmed the presence of a file-sharing program on his computer as well as equipment that permitted him to steal the unsecured wireless signal from his neighbor. Investigators also determined that he was the godparent of four minor boys who routinely spent the night at his residence. A parent of the boys identified them in the images that Haycock claimed to have produced.

Haycock has been ordered detained as a danger to the community. He will be arraigned today at 1:30 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary S. Austin, and will appear before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill on January 7, 2011.

If convicted, Haycock faces a maximum of 30 years in prison for each sexual exploitation count, 20 years in prison for each child pornography count, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime term of supervised release.

The charges in an indictment are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney David Gappa is prosecuting the case.

The prosecution is 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, or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak to the PSC Coordinator.