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(304) 234-0100 ● Contact: Fawn E. Thomas, Public Affairs Specialist

August 5, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

West Virginia Resident Arrested
on Child Pornography Charges

MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA — A Ridgely, West Virginia, resident was arrested yesterday in Michigan City, Indiana, pursuant to an Indictment returned by a federal grand jury earlier this year.

United States Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, II, announced that ROBERT GLENN HARE was arrested by the Indiana Fugitive Task Force and the FBI. HARE was named in a four-count Indictment which charges him in Count One with the distribution of 13 images containing child pornography on March 30, 2009; Count Two with the distribution of 20 images and 4 videos containing child pornography on April 15, 2009; Count Three with the distribution of 76 images containing child pornography on June 16, 2009; and, Count Four with the possession of in excess of 20,000 images and in excess of 100 videos of child pornography on December 17, 2009, in Mineral County.

The Indictment also seeks the forfeiture of a Compaq desktop computer, containing one Western Digital HD; one Dell desktop computer containing one Seagate hard drive; one IBM Laptop computer containing one Hitachi hard drive; and two other hard drives.

If convicted, HARE faces a maximum exposure of 5 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 on each of the distribution counts and 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 on the possession count.

The case will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Paul T. Camilletti and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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 U.S. 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, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov .

It should be noted that the charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations and not evidence of guilt, and that each defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.