A former town of Greece police
officer has been charged in federal court with possession of child pornography.
According to a criminal complaint
and other court papers filed Sept. 5 but unsealed on Tuesday, John Casey III is
accused of having images of child pornography on his laptop computer and
sharing them via a peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading service.
The charges stem from a
two-year investigation that included federal agents downloading videos from
Casey's computer and a search of Casey's home on Long Pond Road.
Casey was hired by the Greece
Police Department on Feb. 7, 2011 and resigned on May 23, 2014, according to
department spokesman Sgt. Jared René.
Chief Patrick Phelan said he
could not provide any details of a criminal investigation being conducted by
another agency. He said he was aware of the investigation when Casey resigned.
The charges are apparently not
linked to Casey's employment.
According to court documents,
Department of Homeland Security investigators looking into peer-to-peer file
sharing programs in 2012 identified a user making available numerous files with
digital fingerprints linked to child porn with an IP address that traced back
to Casey. While agents downloaded a file apparently containing child
pornography from that IP address at the time, no judicial action followed.
However, in March 2014, when an
agent was again investigating P2P file sharing services, the agent came across
a user — with an IP address that also later traced back to Casey — who had 64
porn-associated files available for download. The agent downloaded five of the
video files, and determined that four of them "contained depictions of
minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct."
A search warrant was executed
at Casey's home on Long Pond Road on April 22 and two laptop computers were
seized, according to court documents. Investigators found the same P2P
downloading program that agents had used on one of the computers, and they also
found digital links and other traces showing that child pornography had at one
time been present on the computer.
A second computer taken from
Casey's home, which investigators say had registered user information that not
only linked back to Casey but also to his profession, contained "multiple
images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct," including
at least one image of a female infant being violated by an adult male.
Casey was arrested on Sept. 17
in Iowa and is scheduled to appear Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan
W. Feldman in Rochester.
MCDERMOT@DemocratandChronicle.com
