Brownsville man pleads guilty in child porn case
A Brownsville man pleaded guilty in Fayette County Court on Monday to having child pornography he obtained from an Internet file-sharing service, claiming he acquired and shared the materials but did not do so intentionally.
Brian Hess, 40, was charged with disseminating photos of child sex acts and child pornography on Aug. 22, 2010. Hess entered a general plea in the case, meaning there is no set plea deal and his sentence will be up to the judge.
Hess initially told Judge Steve P. Leskinen he wasn’t even aware the illegal materials were on his computer.
“Sounds like a not guilty plea,” Leskinen said.
Hess explained that over a period of 10 years, in the course of using an Internet file-sharing service, he had searched for legal, adult pornography. He said he downloaded the files in large batches without paying attention to the content of each individual file.
“So you knew you had child pornography, but it wasn’t your intention to obtain child pornography?” Leskinen clarified, and Hess agreed.
Because he belonged to the file-sharing network, Hess said he was aware other people could access any of the downloaded files, including the illegal materials. He said he intended to go through the files and delete contraband materials but he was aware other people in the network may have downloaded the files before he deleted them.
Leskinen said the guilty plea could land him a term of 6 to 16 months in prison, and that because of the nature of the offense and a previous aggravated assault on Hess’ record, he would not be eligible for intermediate punishment like house arrest.
Hess will be sentenced on May 23 at 9:30.