Airman faces child-porn charges

A captain stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville was indicted Wednesday on charges of child pornography distribution and possession, U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer announced Thursday.

Shane Padilla, 30, was arrested more than a month ago, on April 4, after an investigation that began in May 2013. After an April 8 hearing before a federal magistrate judge, Padilla was released on home detention until trial, on the condition that he surrender his passport and his pilot's license. Meanwhile, he isn't allowed to have Internet access and was ordered to have no contact with minors.

According to the criminal complaint on which he was arrested last month, Padilla came to the attention of authorities as a result of an investigation conducted by Homeland Security agents in Savannah, Ga. The Homeland Security investigators notified their counterparts in Little Rock that as part of a larger investigation into child pornography, they discovered that Padilla had received child pornography through his email address.

A federal search warrant was obtained for his email account through Yahoo Inc., and agents found that the email address "had received numerous email messages between May 2013 and July 2013 that were found to contain images and/or videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit acts," the complaint states.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations was contacted and seized several electronic devices from Padilla through a military search warrant, according to the complaint. Thyer said the devices were examined by a computer forensics analyst with Homeland Security Investigations, which reported in March that more than 1,000 images and 100 videos containing child pornography had been unearthed.

A large quantity of the images and videos were found on an external storage device with embedded time and date information that indicated they had been created in February 2013, when Padilla was assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base and was living in North Little Rock, the complaint states.

The indictment alleges that Padilla knowingly distributed child pornography on March 27, 2013. It also alleges that from February 2013 through March 27, 2013, he knowingly possessed child pornography.

If convicted of the distribution charge, Padilla faces five to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted of the possession charge. Both charges require five years of supervised release as well.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant. Padilla has been represented so far by Latrece Gray, an assistant federal public defender, though court documents indicated he may not be entitled to retain the services of a public defender.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Metro on 05/09/2014

Upcoming Events