WASHINGTON — For nearly two weeks last year, the FBI operated what it described as one of the Internet’s largest child pornography websites, allowing users to download thousands of illicit images and videos from a government site in the Washington suburbs.

The operation — whose details remain largely secret — was at least the third time in recent years that FBI agents took control of a child pornography site but left it online in an attempt to catch users who officials said would otherwise remain hidden behind an encrypted and anonymous computer network. In each case, the FBI infected the sites with software that punctured that security, allowing agents to identify hundreds of users.

The Justice Department acknowledged in court filings that the FBI operated the site, known as Playpen, from Feb. 20 to March 4, 2015. At the time, the site had more than 215,000 registered users and included links to more than 23,000 sexually explicit images and videos of children, including more than 9,000 files that users could download directly from the FBI. Some of the images described in court filings involved children barely old enough for kindergarten.

That approach is a significant departure from the government’s past tactics for battling online child porn, in which agents were instructed that they should not allow images of children being sexually assaulted to become public. The Justice Department has said that children depicted in such images are harmed each time they are viewed, and once those images leave the government’s control, agents have no way to prevent them from being copied and re-copied to other parts of the internet.

Officials acknowledged those risks, but said they had no other way to identify the people accessing the sites.

“We had a window of opportunity to get into one of the darkest places on Earth, and not a lot of other options except to not do it,” said Ron Hosko, a former senior FBI official who was involved in planning one of the agency’s first efforts to take over a child porn site. “There was no other way we could identify as many players.”

Lawyers for child pornography victims expressed surprise that the FBI would agree to such tactics – in part because agents had rejected them in the past – but nonetheless said they approved. “These are places where people know exactly what they’re getting when they arrive,” said James Marsh, who represents some of the children depicted in some of the most widely-circulated images. “It’s not like they’re blasting it out to the world.”

The FBI hacks have drawn repeated – though so far unsuccessful – legal challenges, largely centered on the search warrants agents obtained before agents cracked the computer network.

But they have also prompted a backlash of a different kind. In a court filing, a lawyer for one of the men arrested after the FBI sting charged that “what the government did in this case is comparable to flooding a neighborhood with heroin in the hope of snatching an assortment of low-level drug users.” The defense lawyer, Colin Fieman, asked a federal judge to throw out child pornography charges against his client, former middle school teacher Jay Michaud. A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments on that request Friday.

Federal agents first noticed Playpen not long after it went online in August, 2014. The site was buried in what is often called the “dark web,” a part of the internet that is accessible to the public only through Tor, network software that bounces users’ internet traffic from one computer to another to make it largely untraceable.

By March of last year, the FBI said, Playpen had grown to become “the largest remaining known child pornography hidden service in the world,” the Justice Department said in a court filing. FBI agents tracked the site to computer servers in North Carolina, and in February seized the site and quietly moved it to its own facility inNewington, Va.

The FBI kept Playpen online for 13 days. During that time, federal prosecutors told defense lawyers that the site included more than 23,000 sexually explicit images and videos of children. Some of those could be downloaded directly from the government’s computers; others were available through links to other hard-to-find locations on the web, Fieman said.

One section of the site was labeled “toddlers,” according to court records. And prosecutors said that some of the images users accessed during the time Playpen was under the government’s control included “prepubescent female” having sexual intercourse with adults.

Fieman said more than 100,000 Playpen registered users visited the site while it was under the FBI’s control. The Justice Department said in court filings that agents had found “true” computer addresses for more than 1,300 of them, and has told defense lawyers that 137 have been charged with a crime, though it has so far declined to publicly identify those cases.

Law enforcement has long complained that online services like Tor create a type of safe haven for criminals because they hide the unique network addresses from which people connect to sites on the internet. Officials said the only way for the government to crack that network was to take over the site and infect it with malware that would trick users’ web browsers into revealing their real internet addresses, which agents could then trace back to the people who were using them.

“The government always considers seizing an illegal child pornography site and removing it from existence immediately and permanently,” Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said. “While doing so would end the trafficking of child pornography taking place on that one website, it would do nothing to prevent those same users from disseminating child pornography through other means.”

Still, he said, “The decision whether to simply shut down a website or to allow it to continue operating for a brief period for a law enforcement purpose is a difficult one.”

Justice officials said they were unable to discuss details of the investigation because much of it remains under seal, at their request.

The Justice Department said in court filings that agents did not post any child pornography to the site themselves. But it did not dispute that the agents allowed images that were already on the site to remain there, and that it did not block the site’s users from uploading new ones while it was under the government’s control. And the FBI has not said it had any ability to prevent users from circulating the material they downloaded onto other sites.

“At some point, the government investigation becomes indistinguishable from the crime, and we should ask whether that’s OK,” said Elizabeth Joh, a University of California Davis law professor who has studied undercover investigations. “What’s crazy about it is who’s making the cost/benefit analysis on this? Who decides that this is the best method of identifying these people?”

The FBI was first known to have operated a child porn site in 2012, when agents seized control of three sites from their operator in Nebraska. FBI Special Agent Jeff Tarpinian testified that the government “relocated two servers to an FBI facility here in Omaha and we continued to let those child pornography run – websites operate for a short period of time.”

That case led to federal child pornography charges against at least 25 people. But in an illustration of how difficult the cases can be, at least nine of the people charged in those cases are still identified in court records only as “John Doe,” suggesting the FBI has so far been unable to link specific people to the network addresses it logged.

The next year, the FBI took control of a dark web site known as Freedom Hosting. The man prosecutors have accused of operating that site, Eric Marques, is due to be extradited to the United States; the charges against him remain sealed. The FBI revealed its role in an Irish court hearing covered by local media.

In each case, the FBI injected the site with malware to crack Tor’s anonymity.

Those hacks, developed with the help of outside contractors, were a technical milestone. When the FBI first realized it could break through Tor, Hosko said the agency gathered counterterrorism investigators and intelligence agencies to see if any of them had a more pressing need for the software. “It was this, exponentially,” Hosko said.

Former Sheriff’s Deputy Nick Moen

UPDATE @ 07/02/2015 3:48 AM: A reader brought it to our attention that the judge responsible for giving Nick Moen a 30-day jail sentence is also presiding over another trial involving a Vermont state senator.

The Burlington Free Press wrote in a May article:

“Prosecutors allege Sen. Norman H. McAllister, R-Franklin, over a period of several years sexually assaulted two women who were his tenants and employees, and that he attempted to solicit a third woman.”

Judge Alison Arms is overseeing the trial, having already set a bail of $20,000 to the politically-connected McAllister.

Vermont State Senator Norman McAllister, alleged to have “traded” sexual favors for rent with unwilling tenants

GRAND ISLE, Vt. — A Vermont sheriff’s deputy convicted for possessing child pornography has received a sentence so lenient it’s causing outrage in the community.

Former Grand Isle Sheriff’s Deputy Nick Moen was arrested in January of 2015 and given a paltry 30-day sentence for multiple counts of possession of child pornography. Prosecutors said Moen used file sharing networks to obtain and share sexually explicit images of young children on the Internet.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office offered an extremely light plea deal to Moen, who agreed to plea guilty to three felony charges in exchange for 3-year sentence — but Judge Alison Arms suspended all but 30 days of the prison term.

An affidavit given by Matthew Ramon, the arresting officer in Moen’s case, described the horrific contents found on Moen’s computer:

“Moen’s files included a nine year old girl giving her father ‘a Super bj’ and toddler sex abuse.”

Lori Handrahan, a social justice advocate working to bring the issue of child molestation to the spotlight, says everyone responsible for such a lax sentence should themselves also be investigated.

“When a police officer trading in brutal images and videos of small children being raped is given only 30 days in jail, that is a red flag of a corrupt judicial system,” said Handrahan. “The judge who gave this sentence should, herself, be investigated.”

Moen had been let go from his position with the Grand Isle Sheriff’s Office prior to his arrest. Moen’s employment was not terminated for misconduct; he was discharged without incident due to a lack of work.

GREECE, N.Y. — A New York police officer was sentenced Monday for possessing child pornography.

Prosecutors say John Casey III, 47, of Greece, New York, was sentenced to four years in prison, as well as ten years of supervised release after his incarceration. Casey will also need to register as a sexual offender.

In March 2014, Casey shared images of child pornography online. Investigators were able to download several photographs from Casey’s computer of children being raped.

Investigators say the time of the online activities determined that the images were never downloaded when Casey was at work.

Prosecuting attorney Craig Gestring argued that Casey should be detained until he is sentenced.

US District Judge Elizabeth Wolford said federal law defines possession of child pornography as a violent offense, and pretrial detention is required unless except for special circumstances. Wolford determined this situation did not warrant such exceptions.

Casey attorneys said the crime Gestring pleaded guilty to was less violent than other crimes, but Wolford disagreed, saying “horrific acts were done to these real children,” referencing the images found on Casey’s computers.

by Virgil Vaduva

Ohio jurors have deliberated and the verdict is in for Tyler Paxson. The 19 year old Spencerville, OH man facing one count of assault of an officer was found not guilty. As Judge Cheney read the verdict in Allen County Common Pleas Court. Sighs of relief were heard from Paxson’s family in the court room.

Jurors deliberated for about 3 and a half hours before they reached a not guilty verdict. During closing arguments earlier today jurors heard conflicting testimony between officer accounts and eye witness accounts. Officers say Paxson was combative when they tried to subdue and arrest him. However, Paxson’s friend, two neighbors and Paxson himself describe the officers beating the 19 year old without him resisting. Paxson was facing the possibility of 18 months behind bars.

On July 12, 2014, Lima PD responded to calls of a party taking place.  Upon arrival, they see a number of people walking around, multiple beer cans, and Paxson, who appeared underage.  According to the statements that officers provided internal investigators with, Paxson saw the officers and turned to walk in the opposite direction, going to the porch of the private property.  He was asked his age, and asked for ID upon suspicion of being inebriated and underage.  At that time, officers can be heard saying “Stop resisting,” multiple times. In the follow up statements, five officers provide conflicting testimony, which ultimately the investigator found to be “consistent” with the Lima PD “force continuum” and “General Directive 4.01.”

During the arrest, officers in question claim that Paxson struck multiple officers, including punching one twice in the face.  This claim is substantiated in the grand jury indictment.  Nevertheless, it was Paxson with open wounds on his back from flashlights and batons, and a gaping welt on his eye that one officer claimed was from being dragged on the ground.  To make matters worse, Paxson told The Anti-Media in December that the officers were going door to door threatening witnesses with arrest if they spoke against the Lima officers.

The Lima Police Department has a history of intimidation, coercion and brutality.  In other, non-related incidents, the department charged one man for obstructing justice when he refused to turn over his personal cell phone that officers acknowledge recorded a felony in action.  The resident in this case argues that it is not his responsibility to do the job of the officers.  In another incident, the daughter of a 72 year old man reports on social media that her father was arrested and detained on suspicion of drug trafficking for having out of state plates.  In 2008, Lima officers raided the home of Tarika Wilson in search of her boyfriend, suspected of drug trafficking.  During the SWAT raid, Wilson was shot and killed and her 14 month old son was shot and injured. Wilson was holding her baby at the time.

Hometownstations.com-WLIO- Lima, OH News Weather Sports

This article was co-authored by Alex Freeman from The Fifth Column News and Virgil Vaduva

A former Lorain County Juvenile Court magistrate is facing federal charges after FBI investigators found hundreds of images of child pornography on his computer, according to FBI Special Agent Kelly Liberti.

Former magistrate James Paterson, 49, was charged Tuesday with receiving child pornography at his home in Lorain after an investigation led by the FBI into Paterson’s online activity.

Investigators found that Paterson had commented on multiple online child pornography sites and had “hundreds” of images of child pornography on his computer, according to a complaint filed by the FBI in the U.S. District Court on Monday.

Paterson previously was a juvenile magistrate for former Lorain County Domestic Relations Judge David Berta, according to Liberti, the Cleveland FBI spokeswoman.

Berta said he just learned about the charges Wednesday morning.

“I was taken aback and thoroughly upset. If these charges bear to be true, I will truly be heartbroken,” Berta wrote in a message Wednesday evening.

The investigation dates to early December when Paterson went on child pornography websites and “expressed an interest” in children younger than 12, according to the complaint.

That information led FBI investigators to execute a search warrant at Paterson’s house Monday. Paterson was home at the time and told investigators that he has a collection of between 500 to 1,000 sexually explicit images of children and around 200 sexually explicit videos, according to the complaint.

He also told investigators that he has watched child pornography for the past couple of years.

After his arrest, however, he denied ever sexually abusing children.

On Tuesday, investigators seized Paterson’s computer and found hundreds of images of children from newborn to age 6 being sexually abused, according to the complaint.

Paterson was being held in federal custody Wednesday until his detention hearing at 2 p.m. Monday at the U.S. District Court in Cleveland.