FOR FURTHERINFORMATION CONTACT

AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or

MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885  
FEBRUARY 26, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md                                       

PIKESVILLE MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO RECEIPT OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Search of His Home Recovers More than 30,000 Images of Child Pornography

Baltimore, Maryland - Harold Leroy Rivers, age 62, of Pikesville, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to receipt of child pornography, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to his guilty plea, on October 25, 2006, an undercover agent located in San Jose, California, logged onto a child pornography message board and posted two messages indicating the availability of a file containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Both of the messages provided links to download a preview of the advertised file. These links actually did not contain child pornography; rather, the users were sent to an untraceable file located on an FBI covert computer.

On October 26, 2006, Harold Rivers partially downloaded one of the posted preview files from the FBI covert computer eighty-eight times. On February 28, 2007, a federal search warrant was executed at Harold Rivers’ residence in Pikesville, Maryland and agents recovered numerous CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, external hard drives, zip drives, floppy disks and computers which contained a large number of pictures of child pornography. A forensic search of Rivers’ computer hard drives was conducted and more than 30,000 images and movie files of child pornography were identified. Most of the images depicted prepubescent minors, including at least 4,000 identified child victims. The images also included numerous sadistic and masochistic images depicting child pornography.

Rivers also admitted videotaping young girls in Baltimore and New York sitting outside on steps wearing dresses and skirts, focusing on the genital area of the girls and seeking to capture pictures of their underpants when they spread their legs. Several of the VHS tapes recovered during the search contained such images.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Rivers faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years, and a maximum of 20 years in prison followed by supervised release for life for receipt of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for May 9, 2008 at 11:00 a.m.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their investigative work. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Bonnie S. Greenberg, who is prosecuting the case.