Former Cottage Grove police officer pleads guilty to child porn
EUGENE, Ore. - A former Cottage Grove police officer admitted having over 600 photographs of children engaged in explicit sexual conduct in pleading guilty to one count of possession of child pornography.
Kim Scott Graham faces up to 10 years in prison when sentenced Jan. 20, 2010.
Graham resigned from the Cottage Grove Police Department in April. He was put on paid administrative leave in March after the FBI searched the Cottage Grove Police Department and Graham's Eugene home as part of an Internet child pornography investigation involving hundreds of images posted online since 2004, the most recent posted in late February 2009.
Graham was a patrol officer with the Cottage Grove Police Department at that time.
According to the Department of Justic, in pleading guilty, Graham admitted that between March 2004 and March 2009, he accumulated over 600 images of child porn.
Among the hundreds of images linked to Graham by investigators were over 200 showing boys between the ages of 4 and 8, according to court records. The investigation started in September 2008 with a report of eight images of child pornography posted to a photo site.
During the course of the investigation, agents discovered complaints linked to the same person from March 2008 that had inadvertantly been closed along with a large number of other cases involving suspects outside the United States.
Investigators also linked the case to tips dating back to 2004.
This is a press release from the United States Department of Justice:
Kim Scott Graham, a former Cottage Grove police officer, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography before United States Chief District Judge Ann L. Aiken. The maximum statutory penalty for the offense is 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and not less than a five year term of supervised release. The sentencing hearing is scheduled to occur on January 20, 2010.
According to documents filed in court, a search warrant was served on Graham’s residence in Eugene, Oregon on March 6, 2009. The warrant authorized federal agents to search for evidence of the distribution and possession of child pornography. Among other things, federal agents seized multiple laptop computers. On that same date, a search warrant was also served at the Cottage Grove Police Department for evidence of Graham’s distribution and possession of child pornography. Graham was a patrol officer with the Cottage Grove Police Department at that time.
In pleading guilty, Graham admitted that between March of 2004 and March of 2009, he possessed over 600 images of actual minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He also admitted that the offense involved (1) an actual prepubescent minor or an actual minor under the age of twelve years, (2) material that portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence, and (3) the possession of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct which resulted from his use of a computer.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Oregon Department of Justice. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean B. Hoar.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.