Cocoa Man Sentenced For Receiving Child Pornography
By Space Coast Daily // March 4, 2015
Richard Dale Brooks Sentenced 7 Years, 11 Months In Federal Prison
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA — U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Richard Dale Brooks (55, Cocoa) to 7 years and 11 months in federal prison on five counts of receiving child pornography over the Internet, and one count of possessing child pornography.
The Court also ordered him to forfeit a computer that he had used in the commission of the offenses.
A federal jury found Brooks guilty, after a three-day trial, on June 5, 2014.
At trial, the government presented evidence that law enforcement had identified Richard Dale Brooks while investigating individuals sharing child pornography via a peer-to-peer file-sharing program in May 2012. Law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Brooks’s Jacksonville residence and discovered several computers containing child pornography. Specifically, agents discovered that Brooks had received at least 49 still images and 78 video files of child pornography, including depictions of prepubescent minors and child pornography material portraying sadistic and masochistic conduct, and depictions of violence.
According to court documents, Brooks requested a sentence of 60 months’ imprisonment, the lowest available sentence under the law, in light of his 20-year military career and his lack of criminal history.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kelly S. Karase.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. 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 locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
