18-year-old Montana man sentenced to 10 years on child pornography violations

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – An 18-year-old Montana man was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison for various child pornography violations, announced U.S. Attorney Michael W. Cotter, District of Montana. 

Joshua Paul Jordan, of Great Falls, Mont., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon to 120 months in prison, supervised release for 15 years after he completes his prison term, and will forfeit his computer equipment.

Jordan was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to distributing and receiving child pornography, and accessing with the intent to view child pornography.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee L. Peterson, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

• In November 2011, as part of a Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigation, a Madison County Sheriff's Office deputy made contact online with Jordan.  They communicated via chat messages.  During an online chat session on Nov. 4, 2011, Jordan distributed four images of child pornography from his computer to the undercover deputy via the Internet.  The images depicted very small children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
• Between June and November 2011, a Lewistown Police Department detective was also investigating a child pornography crime involving Jordan.  The detective obtained a search warrant for Jordan's residence.  His residence was searched Nov. 5, 2011.  Law enforcement officers seized numerous electronic items from the residence, including computers which belonged to Jordan.

The seized items were forensically examined and the Certified Forensic Examiner determined the following:

• A desktop computer contained image and video files depicting child pornography;
• A laptop computer contained images depicting child pornography which were located in a cache which were created between Nov. 4 and 5, 2011.  The examiner also located evidence of the chat with the Madison County Sheriff's deputy.
• A Nintendo DS gaming console contained evidence of video file names which were indicative of files that would contain child pornography.  The video files themselves were not located as they had been deleted or were unrecoverable.

When interviewed, Jordan admitted to downloading and distributing child pornography via the Internet.  He admitted that he knew it was illegal and referred to the child pornography as "illegal files" throughout the interview. He also admitted he received sexual gratification from viewing the files.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that Jordan will likely serve all the time imposed by the court.  In the federal system, Jordan has the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior."  However, this reduction will not exceed 15 percent of the overall sentence.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Madison County Sheriff's Office, the Lewistown Police Department, the Great Falls Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).

HSI is a founding member and the U.S. representative of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.