79-year-old Middletown man indicted on 67 child porn counts in Warren County

Thomas A. Johnson, 79, of Village Drive, is charged with illegal use of a minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance, a fifth-degree felony, and pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor or impaired person, a fourth-degree felony.

Thomas A. Johnson, 79, of Village Drive, is charged with illegal use of a minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance, a fifth-degree felony, and pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor or impaired person, a fourth-degree felony.

A 79-year-old Middletown man has been indicted on 67 felony charges allegedly stemming from nude photographs and videos with minors engaging in sex found in his possession on April 3, according to a list of indictments issued by the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office.

Thomas A. Johnson, of Village Drive, is charged with illegal use of a minor or impaired person in nudity-oriented material or performance, a fifth-degree felony, and pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor or impaired person, a fourth-degree felony.

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The case dates back to Jan. 14, when Detective Brandi Carter of the Warren County Sheriff’s Office was using software used by police to patrol the internet for crimes against children, according to a search warrant filed on April 2 in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

Carter was able to locate the internet address of a user in the Franklin area “used to frequent known child pornography sites, and programs,” she said in the search warrant affidavit.

“Additionally, over two hundred images and or videos of known, and previously identified, child pornography files have been downloaded” from September 2017 to March 2019, the affidavit said.

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The software identified “several networks and sites commonly used by “child pornography seekers,” Carter said in the affidavit used to get a judge’s permission to search the residence and seize a cellphone, desktop computer equipment, camera, an address book, papers and assorted storage devices.

Through a subpoena, Carter determined the internet address used to download the child porn was Johnson’s and the warrant was issued and served by Mark Purdy, another detective with the sheriff’s department, according to court records.

Johnson was not present during the search and seizure, according to the return filing.

He was in the county jail Wednesday, pending his arraignment on July 12.

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