Former Gonzales District Fire Chief Convicted of Child Pornography Charges

BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Walt Green announced today that former Gonzales District Fire Chief KRISTOPHER JOHNSON, age 36, of Gonzales, Louisiana, has been convicted of distributing and possessing child pornography.  Earlier today, JOHNSON plead guilty before U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick to four counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.  He will be sentenced at a later date to be determined.

During today’s hearing, JOHNSON admitted to a factual basis contained in his plea agreement.  According to the factual basis, the investigation began when law enforcement learned discovered that a Gmail user with several email addresses, including kjohnson@gonzalesfd.com, had uploaded images of child pornography into an online photo account.  Investigators then traced the user’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses back to JOHNSON’s residence.  After executing a search warrant at JOHNSON’s residence, investigators found child pornography on JOHNSON’s cell phone and IPad, including images of children between six and twelve years of age being sexually abused.  When interviewed, JOHNSON admitted to going to various websites to view child pornography, trading child pornography via Google, and viewing child pornography which purportedly displayed the child niece of an individual with whom he was corresponding.  Investigators further discovered that JOHNSON had texted multiple images of children being sexually abused to another individual via a texting application. 

U.S. Attorney Green stated: “Those who exploit and perpetuate the sexual abuse of children by trading and possessing images of such abuse will continue to be aggressively pursued by this office, along with our federal, state, and local partners.  I commend the agents and prosecutor for their work on this important prosecution.”   

This matter is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (DHS-HSI), and the Cyber Crime Unit of the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, with assistance from the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office.  The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ryan R. Crosswell.