St. Augustine Man Sentenced for Possessing Child Pornography

JACKSONVILLE—U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton announces that U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan yesterday sentenced Patrick Joseph Nardi (age 33, of St. Augustine) to 48 months in federal prison for possessing child pornography. Nardi had pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child pornography on December 9, 2009.

According to court documents, an investigator with the Florida Attorney General’s Office (AGO) Cyber-Crime Unit was searching the Internet and located, on a host computer, a known image of child pornography which was contained within a shared file in the Peer-to-Peer program of the host computer. The Internet protocol address of the host computer was revealed to belong to Nardi, whose address was a residence described as Bachelor Enlisted Quarters on Naval Air Station, Jacksonville. A Naval Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) special agent determined that Nardi was an active-duty sailor.

Special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and NCIS, and investigators with the AGO executed a search warrant on Nardi's quarters and seized a computer, an external hard drive, and other hardware and CDs. The computer hard drive contained numerous videos of very young children engaged in sexual activity with adults. Nardi has since been separated from the United States Navy with a less than honorable discharge.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Attorney General’s Office, and the Naval Criminal Intelligence Service. It was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Steven Meredith.

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 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.