| HUDSON FALLS---A Hudson Falls man has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Albany to the production and possession of child pornography.
Norbert Morgan, 36, had been indicted by a federal grand jury on Dec. 1, charged with 16 counts of the production, transportation, receipt and possession of child pornography.
In connection with his plea, Morgan admitted that sometime between July 31, 2001, and Jan. 18, 2002, he photographed an 11 year old girl in sexually explicit poses. Morgan later placed sexually explicit images of this minor on his computer and on computer disks, and offered these images to other individuals online.
Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 12 of 2003, Morgan filmed a 17 year old girl in sexually explicit poses and engaged in sexually explicit conduct on approximately 10 separate occasions. After creating these images, he placed a number of these images in his Yahoo! briefcase and made them available to other individuals on the Internet, placing images of this minor on his computer and on computer disks.
On Oct. 28, 2005, a federal search warrant was executed at Morgan’s home. Two computers, a computer hard drive and numerous computer disks were taken during the search. A forensic examination of a computer and the computer disks resulted in the recovery of a number of sexually explicit images of both minors. In addition, over 1,000 sexually explicit images of other minors were recovered from the computer and disks. A substantial number of these images involve actual prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. A number of these images depict minors engaged in sadistic and masochistic conduct.
Sentencing was scheduled by Judge Gary Sharpe for May 24 at in U.S. District Court in Albany. Morgan faces a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment on count one and a maximum penalty of 10 years on count 15. In addition, he faces a fine of $250,000 on each count. He was remanded pending his sentencing.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Predator Task Force. 2-19-06 © 2005 North Country Gazette |
