Coeur D’Alene Man Admits Possessing Sexually Explicit Images of Minors

COEUR D’ALENE—Loren Stanley Hall, 69, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to possessing sexually explicit images of minors, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.

According to the plea agreement, in June 2012, a police officer, working with the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, discovered that a computer in Coeur d’Alene was making child pornography available on the Internet. The officer was able to download the file from a publicly available Internet network. He observed that the file contained a video of minors involved in sexually explicit conduct. Using digital information obtained when downloading the file, the officer was able to determine that the video was being made available from Hall’s residence in Coeur d’Alene.

In October 2012, a federal search warrant was served on Hall’s residence. According to the plea agreement, Hall told officers that he had been downloading pornography involving “younger girls.” A forensic examiner with the United States Secret Service examined Hall’s computer and other digital storage devices found in his home and found that Hall had at least 50 movies depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The examiner determined that Hall had used search terms such as “underage,” “pre-teen,” “kiddy,” “man boy love,” and other search terms to find child pornography. Law enforcement officers were able to determine that the videos in Hall’s collection involved children from Washington State, Texas, New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and a number of foreign countries.

The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and five years to lifetime supervised release.

Sentencing is set for April 28, 2014, before U.S. District Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Coeur d’Alene.

The case was investigated by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and included the cooperative law enforcement efforts of Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Meridian (Idaho) Police Department, United States Secret Service, Idaho Attorney General’s Office, Coeur d’Alene Police Department, and U.S. Marshals Service. For more information about the ICAC Task Force, visit www.icacidaho.org.

This case was 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. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”