ILLINOIS MAN INDICTED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY POSSESSION CHARGE

Jacksonville, FL - A federal grand jury has returned an indictment against Christopher Andrew Piasecki charging him with possession of materials containing visual depictions of child pornography.  Piasecki, age 20, resides in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, and was a student at Jacksonville University until February 2007.  The indictment charges that on February 13, 2007, Piasecki knowingly possessed materials on his computer containing images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct which had been shipped and transported in interstate and foreign commerce. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and up to three years’ supervised release.

The case was investigated by the Child Predator CyberCrime Unit of the State of Florida Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown is handling the prosecution of this case.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood.  In February 2006, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Childhood, a national 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 on Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The Florida Attorney General's Child Predator CyberCrime Unit is a member of the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, a federally funded program working nationwide to educate and support law enforcement to stop these crimes, and the FBI Cyber Taskforce in Jacksonville.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.