12/04/2009

News / Convicted sex offender sentenced for possessing child pornography

HOUSTON - A local man with a previous rape conviction was sentenced on Thursday to 12 years in prison without parole, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for possessing child pornography. The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted the investigation.

Thomas David Hogan, 47, was sentenced to a 144-month prison term by U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison. The judge considered Hogan's criminal history which includes a 1982 rape conviction in Montgomery County, Texas. Hogan pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on May 7, after ICE agents arrested him in June 2008.

Hogan will remain in U.S. Marshals Service custody pending his transfer to a soon-to-be-designated Bureau of Prisons facility to serve his sentence. In addition to the 12-year prison term, Hogan was also sentenced to a lifetime term of supervised release. The court also imposed a number of special conditions designed to protect children, and prohibited his use of the Internet.

The investigation began in October 2005 when ICE agents in New Jersey found an illegal child pornography Web site. An undercover agent purchased a membership to the site and received a login ID and password. Agents discovered the Web site contained thousands of child pornography images.

ICE agents determined the credit card charges to the child pornography Web site were processed through a company in Carrollton, Texas. In September 2006, a search warrant was executed at the Carrollton business by ICE agents from Newark and Dallas. The search revealed additional purchases to the child pornography Web site, which contained the subject's name, address and credit card number. Among the collected information was information entered by an individual identified as Thomas Hogan with a Houston mailing address. Agents learned Hogan made purchases in March and April 2006, and also determined his e-mail address.

ICE agents in the Houston office executed a federal search warrant at Hogan's Houston residence in November 2007 and seized three computers and 34 CDs. A forensic analysis completed on two of the computers found 339 videos and 3,394 images of child pornography. The images involved the depiction of prepubescents under the age of 12, images involving oral sex and penetration, and two videos involving bondage. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) was provided a copy of these images and discovered images of known victims.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE 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. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 12,000 individuals.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0912/091203houston.htm

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