Ex-consultant gets 8 years for child porn
FBI agents found material while investigating theft of governor’s emails
A former consultant to a state Democratic Party political action committee who was caught with child porn during an investigation into the hijacking of emails on Gov. Susana Martinez’s 2010 campaign website will spend the next eight years in federal prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release.
Jason Loera, 48, previously pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge James Browning handed down the 97-month sentence after a lengthy sentencing hearing on Friday.
FBI agents found the child porn while investigating the theft of Martinez’s emails.
“I take full responsibility for the crimes I committed,” Loera said in court, where he apologized for the “perpetual re-victimization of the innocent.”
Prosecutors, however, questioned whether Loera was taking responsibility for his actions, and asked Browning to impose a 10-year sentence, which was at the high end of federal sentencing guidelines.
Jerry Walz, Loera’s attorney, asked for a five year sentence, which was the mandatory minimum.
Loera said he became hooked on child pornography when he was given a laptop that already contained child porn. And he said in a sentencing memorandum that he started downloading child pornography to see if there were pictures that showed him being sexually abused as a boy by his older stepbrother.
He also said he didn’t make the CDs that contained child porn that were found in his possession, according to the memorandum.
“I find that impossible to believe,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristopher Houghton said in court. “When you chase down some of these things that are coming from defendant Loera, they don’t pan out.”
During the sentencing hearing, an FBI agent testified that during an analysis of Loera’s computer, he found more than 700 images and videos of children engaged in sexual acts or poses. But the agent said he stopped his search at that point because that’s all the evidence that could be used to affect Loera’s prison sentence. There were tens of thousands of images that the FBI didn’t analyze, he said.
The agent also said some of the pictures were violent.
“These are disturbing and hard-core pictures in this particular case,” Browning said during the sentencing. “I’m concerned you’re not quite to the point of realizing the severity of this child porn. I hope you will.”