WASHINGTON – Brian D. Hindson, 40, of Carmel, Ind., was sentenced today in Indianapolis to 400 months in prison on 11 counts of production of child pornography, four counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Timothy M. Morrison and FBI Special Agent-in-Charge for the Indianapolis Division Michael S. Welch announced. Hindson was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and to serve a lifetime period of supervised release.
At Hindson’s plea hearing on July 23, 2008, the statement of facts presented by the government established that he previously worked as head coach and chief executive officer of Central Indiana Aquatics, as the head coach of Kokomo High School Swimming and Diving in Kokomo, Ind., and as a coaches’ representative for Indiana Swimming Inc. The statement of facts also established that during an approximately 10-year period, Hindson hid video cameras in locker rooms at Kokomo High School and Memorial Gym, and then secretly videotaped female teenage swimmers from his teams while they undressed. The criminal activity was discovered when he sold a laptop computer on the Internet to buyers in Gastonia, N.C. In reviewing the contents of the laptop, the buyers saw videos of a nude, teenage girl in a locker room who appeared to be unaware that she was being filmed as she changed her clothes. A search warrant was executed at Hindson’s home and numerous images and videos of child pornography were recovered, including several videos and images of different teenage girls filmed in the same locker room.
This case emerged out of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. 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 about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. DeBrota of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana and Trial Attorney Bonnie L. Kane of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Cyber Crime Task Force and the Kokomo Police Department, with additional assistance from the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Hamilton County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Westfield Police Department, the Carmel Police Department, the Special Investigations Section of the Indiana State Police and the Fishers Police Department.
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