News Releases
FORMER GRIFFIN POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED ON INTERNET CHILD PORN CONVICTION
April 08, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and Gregory Jones, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announce that DAVID PAUL ERDMAN, 41, of Griffin, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Jack T. Camp, on charges of possession of child pornography. According to Nahmias:
ERDMAN was sentenced to 4 years, 9 months in federal prison, ordered to serve 5 years supervised release, and undergo a mandatory sex offender treatment program.
ERDMAN was indicted on the charges on February 11, 2004. On July 30, 2004, ERDMAN pleaded guilty to one count of possessing an image of child pornography labeled “pedo incest 13yr girl (deleted) by daddy,” which he received by a computer connected to the Internet. According to the indictment, and evidence presented in open court at today’s sentencing hearing, agents with the FBI’s Innocent Images Task Force executed a search warrant at ERDMAN’s home in Griffin, Georgia, in mid-January, 2004. ERDMAN’s home computer was seized by the agents. A forensic examination of the computer determined that ERDMAN was in possession of child pornography. ERDMAN was at the time a police officer with the City of Griffin Police Department. He resigned from the police force in January 2004, immediately after the search warrant was executed at his home.
According to the evidence, ERDMAN came to the attention of police authorities in the Fall of 2003, when, using the screen name “dadcaughtwatchingporn,” he initiated an online conversation with someone whom he believed to be a 15-year-old girl. The “girl” was, in fact, an undercover FBI agent based in Chicago. Conversations initiated by ERDMAN became increasingly sexual, and on December 1, 2003, he sent the “girl” obscene material. ERDMAN told the girl that his parents lived in Chicago, and he arranged to meet with her and to engage in sexual activity when ERDMAN visited his parents over the Christmas holidays. Two days before the meeting, ERDMAN wrote the “girl” cancelling the meeting, writing that he was “kind of nervous.” But the next day, he tried to set up a meeting again, but the “girl” did not his receive his e-mail on time. The Chicago FBI referred the case to the Atlanta FBI.
According to evidence presented in court today, on November 28, 2004, ERDMAN was arrested in McDonough, Georgia on state charges of child molestation and public indecency. According to witnesses, the defendant exposed himself to a nine year old girl who was shopping in a store with her grandmother. An off-duty Henry County Deputy Sheriff was alerted to the alleged conduct by store personnel and the grandmother of the victim. The deputy caught and arrested ERDMAN while ERDMAN’s pants zipper was down thereby exposing ERDMAN’s penis. The state charges are currently pending in Henry County Superior Court.
The federal case was investigated by Special Agents of the FBI’s Safe Child Task Force. The state charges are currently under investigation by the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, with the prosecution being handled by Tommy Floyd, the Henry County District Attorney.
Assistant United States Attorneys Angela Jordan and William L. McKinnon, Jr., prosecuted the case.
For further information please contact David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney or F. Gentry Shelnutt, Chief, Criminal Division, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.