Nevada Man Sentenced for Possession of Sexual Material Involving a Minor

BISMARCK - U. S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon announced that on Jan. 16 2015, Johnathan Edward Holiday, 40, Reno, Nevada, was sentenced before U. S. District Judge Daniel L Hovland to serve five years in prison for possession of materials involving the sexual exploitation of minors.

This case came to the attention of law enforcement after an agent with the North Dakota Bureau of Investigations, assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, discovered a computer geographically located in North Dakota that was sharing child pornography in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. Homeland Security Investigators eventually traced the computer to Holiday where they seized a laptop, two hard drives, and a Kindel Tablet. On about Jan. 20, 2014, Holiday knowingly possessed in excess of 600 images depicting prepubescent minor’s on various media devices including his laptop computer.

Judge Hovland also ordered that Holiday serve five years of supervised release and pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victims Fund.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

Assistant U. S. Attorney Gary Delorme prosecuted the case.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, Project Safe Childhood in conjunction with Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) help Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies enhance their investigative responses to offenders who use the Internet, online communications systems or computer technology to sexually exploit children. The ICAC Program is a national network of 61 coordinated task forces engaging in proactive investigations, forensic investigations and criminal prosecutions. Project safe childhood also helps to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.