An officer with the Federal Department of Justice has pleaded guilty to possession of child porn. He has been sentenced to four years in prison and fined $15,000.
Robert Thomas Darenberg was a 34-year-old IT specialist with the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Federal Courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida. He pleaded guilty to possessing 1630 files containing child pornography, including some 270 videos, in March this year, a notice of the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed.
Darenberg was sentenced on Oct. 21 to serve 48 months in prison and pay restitution of $15,000. After his prison time, he will spend 10 years under supervision and will be required to register as a sex offender.
The case came to light last November, when, allegedly, Darenberg’s girlfriend found compromising material on his laptop. She took some screenshots of the graphic contents. Sometime later she realized that Darenberg had deleted the pictures from her phone, News4Jax reported.
She then turned to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, who, in turn, called in the Feds. In March, officers with the Homeland Security Investigations arrested Darenberg outside the courthouse as he was leaving work.
Investigators “recovered a loaded Sig Sauer 9 millimeter pistol; a plastic cup filled with marijuana; an HP laptop; an Apple iPad mini; six thumb drives, and multiple SD cards.” Darenberg had been employed at the Attorneys Office since 2003. He also hadn’t reported his gun upon entry to the courthouse, which is a crime.
Curtis Fallgatter, a defense attorney, quoted by the outlet, explained why it was obvious Darenberg had to enter a plea deal, “It’s very difficult to defend those (allegations of child porn possession),” he said. “If it’s on there, and you possess it, that’s the crime. They’re very difficult to defend, which means they almost always result in a plea agreement.” The firearm charge was dropped as part of the plea deal.
Cases of child pornography regularly jolt the country. Unfortunately, it is also prevalent among high-ranking officers, as in the case of a Pennsylvania State senator, reported by The Epoch Times earlier this year.
Pennsylvania State Senator Resigns After Being Charged With Child Porn Possession
A Pennsylvania state senator resigned early Sept. 18 after being arrested a day prior on charges of child pornography possession.
Michael Folmer (R-48), 63, is also accused of sexual abuse of children and criminal use of a communication facility.
“We are sickened and disturbed by the charges brought against Mike Folmer yesterday,” Senate President Joe Scarnati (R-25) and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-34) said in a statement Sept. 18.
“We have reviewed the criminal complaint and spoke with Mike Folmer early this morning to insist on his resignation from the Senate. We are in receipt of his letter of resignation, and the 48th Senatorial District seat is now vacant,” they added.
A statement from the office of Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) noted that investigators obtained a warrant to search Folmer’s home after a CyberTip report came through saying that Tumblr had detected that a user had uploaded child pornography using its application in late 2017.
The Tumblr account was traced to Folmer, prosecutors said, and authorities who seized the politician’s phone found two additional images of child pornography during a search of his home in Lebanon, Pa., according to the criminal complaint (pdf).
Epoch Times reporter Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.
