Frank Russell McCoy, Possession of Child Pornography, Minnesota 2016

Guilty Verdict in Child Pornography Case

A 72-year-old repeat offender has been found guilty of possession of child pornography in Minnesota.

A jury deliberated for two days before returning a guilty verdict against Frank Russell McCoy, who was charged with possessing child pornography.

This conviction marks the latest in a long history of child exploitation charges against McCoy.

In 2013, McCoy was convicted in the Middle District of Georgia of one count of transporting obscene matters after sending a story via the Internet to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) undercover agent.

On December 17, 2013, while McCoy was on bond pending an appeal of his conviction, a U.S. Probation officer observed large numbers of computers and related equipment in McCoy's home in Minnesota. A search of the computer equipment revealed dozens of videos of child exploitation.

McCoy had installed forensic wiping software, intended to destroy any evidence of child exploitation images on his computers, but the majority of those files had been written onto a portable video player device just before the seizure of the devices.

U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of the District of Minnesota presided over the trial.

McCoy is scheduled to be sentenced on April 5, 2016.

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.

ICE-HSI investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine T. Buzicky of the District of Minnesota and Trial Attorney Jeffrey Zeeman of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) are prosecuting the case.

Mandatory Facts:

• Defendant: Frank Russell McCoy
• Criminal Charges: Possession of child pornography
• City and State: Minnesota
• Date: April 5, 2016 (sentencing date)
• Sentence or Outcome: Scheduled to be sentenced on April 5, 2016

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/repeat-offender-convicted-minnesota-possession-child-pornography