An Emporia man has made a first appearance in U.S. District Court in Topeka as a result of a federal grand jury’s indictment on pornography charges handed down June 13.
Kevin Patrick Thompson faces two counts relating to child pornography and one forfeiture of a variety of computer equipment.
Thompson is free on his own personal recognizance. His next court appearance will be 9 a.m. Aug. 20.
According to the first count of the indictment, Thompson received interstate and foreign shipments “mailed and so shipped and transported, by any means including by computer” of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The alleged crimes occurred between April 12, 2001, and Feb. 3, 2006.
The second count alleges that Thompson possessed one or more books, periodicals, films, videotapes and other matter that involved visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
During a search warrant executed on Thompson’s residence on Feb. 3, 2006, officers seized a DVD movie and Thompson’s computer. They also found two disks labeled “Internet Cleanup” and “Complete Cleanup,” which a computer examiner said are designed to erase Internet activity and Web site connections accessed by the computer user.
A forensic examiner found more than 1,200 images of child pornography in unallocated clusters on Thompson’s computer, the indictment states. No saved e-mail messages were found; however, the examiner did locate e-mail messages in the unallocated clusters. The e-mails showed purchases of memberships to child pornography Web sites.
The examiner also analyzed a computer seized from Thompson in 2001 and found approximately 600 child pornography images in the unallocated clusters that were not identified during the 2001 investigation.
The indictment calls for forfeiture of a Hewlett Packard Pavilion a610n computer and its components, a Barracuda model Seagate hard drive, a Dell computer, and a Maxtor hard drive.