The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula, on February 23, 2012, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, JASON ROBERT FISHER, a 29-year-old resident of Missoula, appeared for sentencing. FISHER was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 24 months

Special Assessment: $100

Supervised Release: 10 years

FISHER was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to possession of child pornography.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee L. Peterson, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

As part of an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigation, the Missoula Police Department determined that an IP address in Missoula had child pornography files available for download. A search warrant was obtained for the residential address of the subscriber in Missoula.

On May 2, 2011, the search warrant was served. In addition to other items, detectives seized a laptop computer and an external hard drive. Although the laptop was owned by another resident, detectives determined that FISHER also lived at the residence and used the laptop and owned the external hard drive.

During an interview, FISHER admitted to using the laptop to download files via Frostwire. He disclosed his search terms and some of them were indicative of search terms used by someone seeking child pornography. He estimated he had downloaded about 100 images and/or videos of child pornography.

The laptop and external hard drive were forensically analyzed. The examiner recovered approximately 150 files depicting child pornography videos and 20 files depicting child pornography images on the laptop and external hard drive. The examiner determined the relevant files were created between November 15, 2009, and May 1, 2011. None of the files had been deleted by the user. The forensic examiner also located Internet browsing activity indicative of one seeking out child pornography.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that FISHER will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, FISHER does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

 

 

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