Shaun Andrew Copenhaver, Child Pornography, Florida 2014

A Jacksonville man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for knowingly receiving child pornography over the internet.

Sentenced was Shaun Andrew Copenhaver, 29, of Jacksonville, who was also ordered to serve a 15-year term of supervision following his incarceration, to register as a sex offender, and to forfeit his computer media.

Copenhaver has been in custody since his arrest on February 6, 2014.

According to court documents, an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Jacksonville began an undercover investigation to identify individuals in the area that had access to and/or were trading images and videos of child pornography over the Internet.

The agent determined that a local computer was hosting images of child pornography using a peer-to-peer file sharing program, and was able to download several pornographic videos from this computer. Further investigation traced the Internet subscriber information to Copenhaver’s Jacksonville residence.

On February 6, 2014, law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at Copenhaver’s residence and seized a computer and an external hard disk drive. Copenhaver was at the residence. During an interview with agents, he admitted that he had been involved in downloading child pornography from the Internet for about five years. Subsequent analyses of Copenhaver’s external hard drive revealed that it contained videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.

This case was investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

This case is another example of the ongoing efforts of law enforcement agencies to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.

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