Name: Brendan C. Forney
Case: United States v. Forney NMCCA 200200462
Date Of Conviction: July 19, 2005
Plea: Guilty
Charges: Possession of child pornography
Military Branch: U.S. Navy
Listed In National Sex Offenders Registry? NO
A general court-martial composed of members convicted the appellant, contrary to his pleas, of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman and two specifications of wrongfully possessing child pornography, in violation of Articles 133 and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 933 and 934, and 18 U.S.C. § 2252(A).1 The appellant was sentenced to 12 months confinement and a dismissal. The convening authority approved the sentence as adjudged. There was no pretrial agreement at the time of his offenses the appellant was an Ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve, serving on active duty as the Auxiliaries Officer onboard USS DAVID R. RAY (DD- 971).
Along with his shipmates, the appellant was assigned a user name and password to access the ship's computer system and was permitted to store files on the computer's shared drive. While conducting routine system maintenance in March 2000, Fire Controlman Second Class (FC2) "H," the ship's computer system administrator, noticed that the appellant's home directory contained a excessively large number of picture files. FC2 H scanned the appellant's directory along with its contents and discovered suspected child pornography. FC2 H also monitored the appellant's computer usage over the next few days and traced the pornographic photos to the computer workstation located in the appellant's stateroom. Record at 439-48.
Upon the ship's return to port, agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) took over the investigation. After analyzing the information provided by FC2 H concerning the appellant's shipboard computer account, these agents seized a computer hard drive, zip drive, and a floppy disk from the appellant's stateroom. Forensic examination of these items revealed over 50,000 image files, some of which contained female minors in sexually suggestive posses, along with numerous Internet "shortcuts" to child pornography websites. Also found were temporary Internet files for teen and preteen pornography websites entitled "Lo-li-ta.com," "youngandwild.com," and "underage.org."
After being advised by the NCIS agents that he was suspected of possessing child pornography, the appellant waived his Article 31b, UCMJ, rights and admitted that he browsed the Internet for images of naked young girls. He further admitted that he found these images "erotic" and looked for "girls primarily aged 10-13."
From October 1999 until his illicit computer files were discovered, the appellant downloaded child pornography from the Internet using the computer in his shipboard stateroom, as well as a computer in the Engineering Log Room. Id. The appellant conceded that this activity lasted for nearly 13 months, stating that the images he viewed and downloaded "... became more graphic with the girls having their genitalia exposed and/or engaged in sex acts with adults - some oral copulation and some in sexual intercourse."
Following his initial confession to the NCIS agents, the appellant permitted them to search his off-base apartment. This search yielded additional computer drives and disks containing child pornography (some of which duplicated photos discovered on the appellant's ship board account), as well as computer printouts of photographs of nude girls. In a follow-up confession to NCIS, the appellant explained that he downloaded 1700-1800 images while on board the USS DAVID R. RAY and that they were of girls "ranging in age from 10-15." PE 19, p. 2. He also admitted that at the time he accessed these images, he knew that it was a crime and that "5%" of the images were of child pornography.
After examining the entire record, we are convinced that the findings of guilty are legally and factually sufficient to support the appellant's conviction of the original Charge and its specification.
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An Unofficial Site
Of United States Military
Sexual Offender
Conviction Records
Not Associated With The U.S. Military Or Government
Brendan C. Forney
Lieutenant Jr Grade U.S. Navy
Convicted Sex Offender
Possession Of Child Pornography
