Military officials said they found more than 500 images of child pornography on computer equipment allegedly belonging to a Naval Academy midshipman who may have shared his photos with Internet users.
Midshipman 1st Class Michael Pollard, 22, could face five to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Investigating officer Cmdr. Michael Holifield will make a recommendation to Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, academy superintendent, next week on whether to move forward with the charges of possessing and distributing child pornography.
Midshipman 1st Class Mikoto Yoshida, one of Pollard?s five roommates, said he saw the images on Pollard?s computer Feb. 22, 2007.
“It looked like 13-, 14-year-olds engaging in sexual acts … but I?m no expert in child pornography,” Yoshida said Monday during a hearing at the Naval Yard in Washington, D.C.
Yoshida notified his commanding officer; Naval Criminal Investigative Services agents seized Pollard?s computer, an external hard drive and two computers from his mother?s residence in Florida.
Some minors in the images were verified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said Steven St. Pierre, an analyst with the Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory, which analyzed Pollard?s computers.
One of the computers was connected to online file-sharing networks, which allow anyone on the Internet to download files from another computer, and some pornographic images were available for download.
“That?s the gravity of the crime ? you are revictimizing when you share the pictures,” Holifield.
But when questioned by Pollard?s attorney Larry Burch, St. Pierre said it could not be directly proven if someone downloaded the images.
Pollard also is charged with trying to erase the images, but Burch argued that analysts could not determine when and why Pollard allegedly tried to delete the images.
“If you don?t know when the file was deleted, then you don?t know the purpose of the deletion,”
Burch said.
One NCIS agent said Pollard told him the hard drive, which contained most of the images, was bought from a Web site that sells used computers, and he could not open a file on the drive.
However, officials said folders in the file were numbered to Pollard?s birthday, including the folder containing the images.
Burch also questioned the protocol of obtaining the seizure order of Pollard?s academy computer. Then-superintendent Vice Adm. Rodney Rempt, who issued the order, could not be located to testify.
Pollard elected not to make a statement; Burch and prosecuting attorney Lt. Cmdr. Peter Clemow declined to comment.
