A Portage man was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for creating and possessing images of child sexual abuse.
Around July 2022, Timothy J. Carpenter, 36, of Portage, came to the attention of law enforcement when he used peer-to-peer software to knowingly receive and distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet through his cellular device, court documents state.
During the investigation, Indiana State Police investigators recovered Carpenter’s cell phone, which contained hundreds of images and dozens of videos depicting the sexual abuse of children. During an interview with the ISP, Carpenter admitted that he used his phone to access CSAM, according to a news release. Further analysis of Carpenter’s phone revealed that Carpenter also created multiple videos depicting a prepubescent child fully nude in a shower. These videos show Carpenter concealing a camera in multiple locations near the shower to capture video of the child.
Carpenter, who pled guilty to one count of child sexual exploitation in February, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Philip Simon in his Hammond courtroom, court records state. In addition to the prison sentence, Carpenter will also be required to register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student; be subject to 15 years of supervised release; and to pay restitution totaling $76,000 to his victims.
Carpenter requested to be admitted into the Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Abuse Program, records state.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Chicago Division investigated this case with the assistance of the ISP, Lake County Sheriff’s Special Victims Unit, and Porter County Prosecutor’s Office.
Trial Attorney Eduardo A. Palomo of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily A. Morgan for the Northern District of Indiana prosecuted the case.