The following is a an edited version of a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office - Western Kentucky District. (scroll down to 9/7/06) The graphic details explaining charges against the Postal Worker have been omitted.

RUSSELL SPRINGS MAN - UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES
September 7, 2006David L. Huber, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, announced today that on September 6, 2006, MORRIS E. HALL, age 58, of 3168 East Highway 80, Jamestown, Kentucky 42629, pled guilty to one charge of receiving child pornography.

Hall faces, at a minimum, 5 years’ imprisonment. The maximum potential penalties include 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000.00 fine, and a term of supervised release which could include life.

Hall entered his guilty plea before United States District Judge Thomas B. Russell in Bowling Green, Kentucky. During the guilty plea hearing, Hall acknowledged a factual basis for the charges against him. He admitted that from in or about and between October 2005 and May 2006, he used the computer at the Jamestown, Kentucky, Post Office to look for and receive images of child pornography over the Internet. Hall had previously been arrested by a Special Agent with the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General on May 18, 2006. According to an Affidavit filed at the time of Hall’s arrest, federal agents became aware of Hall’s unlawful activities as a result of routine monitoring of United States Postal Service computers beginning in October 2005 at the Jamestown, Kentucky, Post Office.

A Special Agent with the Postal Service’s Computer Incident Response Team contacted the Computer Crimes Unit to report that a Postal network user had performed an internet search using keywords “pictures of little girls” raising concerns that attempts were being made to view child pornography. The Special Agent determined that an active “Advanced Computer Environment Identification,” a number assigned to employees with access to Postal Service computers, specifically assigned to Hall had been used to make the searches. To determine if Hall was actively searching the internet for child pornography, web logs for Hall’s account number were pulled and reviewed. In addition, investigators used the web logs to determine the amount of time Hall spent using the internet through his Postal Service assigned number.

On November 14, 2005, an investigator traveled to the Jamestown Post Office and made a forensic image of the computers in the facility. The agent’s analysis of the computers concluded that Hall primarily used msn.com to search for sites and keywords on the internet. The resulting data revealed that Hall visited pornographic sites on a daily basis. Further review showed that Hall performed keyword searches for sites that contained pornographic material depicting young adults, teens, and young children.

The web log analysis also revealed that Hall visited a web site called xxxxx.com where he was able to set the search parameters for aspiring models and actors. Continued review revealed evidence where Hall set search parameters for children younger than 14 years old that he wished to view and web logs where Hall visited several websites…..

Further analysis of the hard drive imaged from the workroom floor at the Jamestown Post Office revealed that it contained pornographic and sexually explicit images within the user folders for Hall. Images were recovered from the unallocated space of the hard drive as well as web pages containing images and links for ……..and explicit sexual images. Agents also recovered thumbnail images from the workroom floor computer’s hard drive depicting images of pornography, explicit sex, and nudity. A sample of four images of child pornography received by Hall while on the Postal Service computer were shown to the Magistrate Judge who issued the arrest warrant in this action. The images have been placed under seal of Court to protect against further victimization of the children depicted in the images. With this information, on February 22, 2006, special agents installed a covert camera at the Jamestown Post Office to determine the identity of the suspect and correlate computer activity to documentation obtained from internet searches on that computer. Based on this tool, agents identified a Sales and Service Associate, Morris E. Hall, Jr. as a suspect.

At the time of his arrest, Hall signed a written waiver of rights and agreed to talk to the agents. During the interview, Hall admitted that he had used the computer at the Post Office to access the Internet for the purpose of searching and viewing child pornography.

Assistant United States Attorney Jo E. Lawless is prosecuting the case. The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation.

Judge Russell scheduled Hall’s sentencing hearing for December 7, 2006, at 11:30 a.m., in Bowling Green, Kentucky.