Press Release
DEFENDANT CONVICTED OF DISTRIBUTION AND POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
April 24, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today that Mark Joseph Harvey of Boynton Beach, Florida entered a plea of guilty to all counts of a federal indictment charging him with distribution and possession of child pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2252A(a)(2)(A) and 2252A(a)(5)(B).
Harvey, a former resident of the Cape Cod, Massachusetts area, was arrested on February 4, 2009, on a Criminal Complaint charging that in November and December 2008, Harvey engaged in the distribution of child pornography with an undercover agent with the FBI’s Innocent Images Unit in Maryland. The undercover agent in Maryland obtained from Harvey more than 200 files containing child pornography. Through the subpoena process, the agent was able to determine the possible identity of the source of the images and a possible location in Boynton Beach, Florida. The matter was further investigated by the Miami Division of the FBI in conjunction with the Boynton Beach Police Department.
After additional investigation and surveillance in Boynton Beach, a federal search warrant was obtained. On February 4, 2009, the search warrant was executed by FBI and Boynton Beach Police Department agents at Harvey’s home. Harvey was present during the execution of the search warrant. A laptop computer and an external hard drive were found under Harvey’s bed. Harvey confessed to downloading and distributing child pornography and estimated that he had thousands of images and videos in his child pornography collection. Following Harvey’s arrest, his computer equipment was forensically examined by the Computer Crimes Unit of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, resulting in the identification of more than 100,000 images and videos showing the sexual abuse of young children. Law enforcement believes this is the largest collection of child pornography recovered in the South Florida.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Harvey with two counts of distributing images of child pornography to the undercover agent, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252A(a)(2)(A), and one count of possession of child pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252A(a)(5)(B).
Today, Harvey appeared before the Honorable Kenneth A. Marra in West Palm Beach and entered pleas of guilty to all three charges. Harvey will serve a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment in a federal facility, to be followed by at least five years of federal supervised release. Harvey faces a maximum of 50 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by lifetime supervised release, a $750,000 fine, a $300 special assessment, and restitution to any identified victims. Harvey also will be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life. Sentencing has been set for July 17, 2009 before Judge Marra.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
U.S. Attorney Acosta commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Boynton Beach Police Department, and the Computer Crimes Division of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for their joint efforts in this case. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Marie Villafana.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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