Carlsbad Man Sentenced to Sixty-Three Months in Federal Prison for Child Pornography Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Theodore Robert Larsen, 34, of Carlsbad, N.M., was sentenced this morning in Las Cruces federal court to 63 months in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release for his possession of child pornography conviction.  Larsen will be required to register as a sex offender after he completes his prison sentence.

Larsen was arrested in Sept. 2011, based on an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which included the execution of a federal search warrant at his Carlsbad residence.  The evidence seized during that search included computers and computer-related media containing child pornography. 

Larsen pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in Nov. 2011, and subsequently entered into an amended plea agreement in April 2013.  In entering his guilty plea, Larsen admitted that he knowingly possessed the child pornography found in the residence.  Larsen also admitted that he used his computer and the Internet to access and retrieve child pornography, and that he possessed approximately 1,457 images and 264 video clips of child pornography.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of HSI and the Carlsbad Police Department.  It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Lizarraga of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

The Operation also was brought as a part of the New Mexico ICAC Task Force’s mission, which is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico.  There are 64 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies associated with the ICAC Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office.  Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement.