Hilliard Man Pleads Guilty To Producing Images Of Child Pornography

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jeremiah R. Malfroid, 33, of Hilliard, Ohio, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to production of child pornography.

Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Marlon V. Miller, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and members of the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force announced the plea entered into today before U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost.

According to court documents, investigators with the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force connected files containing child pornography to the defendant’s computer. While executing a search warrant and forensic examination of Malfroid’s computer, investigators discovered 281 files of child pornography, 77 of which depicted children who have been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Numerous additional images on Malfroid’s computer depicted Malfroid sexually abusing a female child. It was confirmed that Malfroid had access to the juvenile female between approximately 2007 and 2013, when the child was three to nine years old.

Malfroid was charged by criminal complaint in October 2014 and absconded during the investigation. He turned himself in to local authorities in California in December 2014, after being profiled on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Operation Predator smartphone app. A user-generated Facebook post indicating Malfroid’s fugitive status had been created the same month and shared nearly 200,000 times.

Production of child pornography is a crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
The Franklin County ICAC Task Force is a multi-agency effort dedicated to the fight against computer facilitated crimes against children. The following agencies are members:

Franklin County Sheriff’s Office	Upper Arlington Police Department
Grove City Police Department	Columbus Police Department
Grandview Heights Police Department	Whitehall Police Department
Hilliard Police Department	Westerville Police Department
Homeland Security Investigations	U.S. Secret Service
Ohio ICAC	Franklin County Prosecutor's Office

This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorney's Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children as well as to identify and rescue victims.
U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the cooperative investigation by HSI and the Franklin County ICAC Task Force, as well as Assistant United States Attorneys Heather A. Hill and Jessica H. Kim, who are representing the United States in this case.