Following a federal jury trial that concluded in September 2023, Duane “Sparky” Lee Johnsen of Tucson has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for crimes associated with child pornography. The conviction handed down by United States District Judge John C. Hinderaker includes charges of Receipt, Knowing Access, and Possession of Child Pornography it signifies not only a judicial condemnation of Johnsen’s actions but will also result in lifetime supervised release for him post-incarceration along with a mandatory registration as a sex offender, Johnsen’s prosecution stems from an investigation of file-sharing programs used for obtaining illicit images by Homeland Security Investigations in Tucson which eventually led to the discovery of his criminal activities, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported on its website.
HSI agents, executing a search warrant in December 2019 at Johnsen’s residence, seized numerous computers and digital storage devices that bore evidence of the defendant’s activities, the recovered data demonstrated Johnsen’s engagement in the search for, downloading, categorizing, and storing significant volumes of child sex abuse images, these included graphic material of prepubescent victims; additionally, Johnsen possessed a grooming manual and animated comics depicting child sexual abuse, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The disturbing details of the case brought to light issues of child sexual exploitation, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carin C. Duryee and Carson R. Gilbert from the District of Arizona, Tucson, leading the prosecution efforts, and this case forms part of Project Safe Childhood, which since 2006 under the auspices of the Department of Justice, has been on a relentless mission to address the surge in child sexual exploitation and abuse and the nationwide initiative marshals the collective efforts of federal, state, and local entities to tackle internet-based exploitation of children, seeking to both apprehend perpetrators and aid victims their recovery, as mentioned by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. HSI Tucson was in charge of the investigation for this case, as detailed in the media release number 2024-152_Johnsen, which highlights the continued efforts of government agencies to combat and prosecute criminal activities related to child pornography and sexual exploitation.
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