Warren County Man Sentenced to 48 Months in Prison for Possessing Images of Child Sexual Abuse
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 21, 2013 |
TRENTON, N.J.—A Warren County, New Jersey man was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for possessing images on his computer and an external hard drive of children being sexually abused, including violent video images, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Leonard Ramirez, 41, of Great Meadows, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson to one count of an indictment charging him with possession of child pornography. Judge Wolfson imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On April 21, 2009, law enforcement agents from the Phillipsburg, New Jersey Police Department interviewed Ramirez at his former girlfriend’s residence in Phillipsburg. They obtained Ramirez’s consent to search his laptop computer and discovered the criminal images.
On May 13, 2009, law enforcement agents from the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey State Police executed a search warrant at Ramirez’s residence. Law enforcement seized an iMac computer and an external hard drive that contained numerous pictures and videos depicting child pornography. The external hard drive also contained videos of sadistic conduct and other violent images involving minors.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Wolfson sentenced Ramirez to five years of supervised release, with restricted contact with minors and computer-use monitoring. Ramirez also must register as a sex offender.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge David Velazquez in Newark; the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Richard T. Burke; the Warren County Chief of Detectives William R. Eppell; the Phillipsburg Police Department, under the direction of Chief James Faulborn; and the New Jersey State Police, under the direction of Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John E. Clabby and R. Joseph Gribko of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.