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Press Release
NEW ORLEANS, La. – United States Attorney David C. Joseph announced today that a New Orleans man was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for viewing child pornography.
Michael Calagna, 66, of New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman on one count of accessing or viewing child pornography. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release. According to the guilty plea, law enforcement began investigating an online video teleconferencing service in 2015 that specialized in sharing child pornography to its viewers. The agents recorded the presentations and noted that Calagna was a viewer at his New Orleans home. During the video chats, Calagna expressed his interest in pornography showing children ages five and up.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood combines 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) also encourage the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (866) 347-2423. Investigators are available at all hours to answer hotline calls. Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online by visiting their website at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp or through the Operation Predator smartphone application www.ice.gov/predator/smartphone-app. Tips may be submitted anonymously.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Luke Walker and David J. Ayo prosecuted the case.