LOUISVILLE, KY – A Louisville man has pled guilty to transmitting images of obscene materials in United States District Court today, before United States District Judge Charles R. Simpson, III announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Andrew Edwards, also known as “unitedklf@gmail.com” was charged in a Superseding Information with sending an email message from United Kentucky Liberation Front to the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, consumer protection division on August 6, 2010. The email included 12 attached image files. The same message was addressed to 32 separate email addresses including the political action committees of various political figures and media outlets.

According to an affidavit in support of a Kentucky state search warrant by an investigator with the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General, Department of Criminal Investigations, seven of the attached images included matter portraying children. Five of the images depicted adult pornography. The email contained the subject line, “Kentucky Freedom?” and the content was considered political rhetoric focusing on the “sovereignty of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.” Edwards admitted to the investigators that he had searched the Internet for the images attached to the August 6, 2010, email and that he knew some of the images were illegal. He also told them that he had attached the “shocking” images in order for the message to get noticed.

Edwards faces a maximum potential penalty of 5 years in prison, a $25,000 fine, and Supervised Release of a period of three years. His sentencing is scheduled for February 27, 2012, at 2:30pm before Judge Simpson in Louisville.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jo E. Lawless and was investigated by the Department of Criminal Investigations of the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General.

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