11/14/12 – New Mexico Man Receives 97-Month Sentence for Child Pornography Charges

A report by a maintenance employee who observed child pornography on an apartment computer led to an investigation, arrest, and guilty plea by 56-year-old Robert Schmidt of Albuquerque on charges of transporting and possessing child pornography. Schmidt was arrested in April 2011 following a search of his apartment and seizure of computers and computer-related media containing thousands of images and videos of child pornography.

The Albuquerque Police Department, the FBI, and the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory conducted the investigation. U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted the case. Schmidt was sentenced by a federal judge to 97 months in prison followed by ten years of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, launched in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, and to identify and rescue victims. The case also was brought as part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The NMICAC's mission is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico. Read the press release.

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