Carpinteria – If you think that your web-surfing history is nobody’s business but your own…you might want to think again. Giovanni Gonzalez, a 24-year old resident of Carpinteria just south of Santa Barbara is certainly giving that notion some thought following his arrest on October 7th on charges of possessing and depicting child pornography on the internet.
It all began, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information officer Kelly Hoover, in late September “when the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau received notification” of certain prohibited internet activities which were generated by the Los Angeles Area Inernet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Center of Missing & Exploited Children CyberTipline Report. Unbeknownst to Mr. Gonzalez, his internet usage activities had raised something of a red flag and pointed directly to his personal Internet Protocol address within Santa Barbara County, and specifically to his place of residence in the City of Carpinteria.
With a search warrant in hand, on October 7th SBSD detectives arrived at Gonzalez’s home and discovered that he was in possession of enough evidence of his involvement with child pornography to earn him a pair of handcuffs. Not only was Gonzales in personal possession of hundreds of illicit images involving child pornography, but it was quickly determined that he was in the habit of posing as a 14-year old girl to “entice his victims into sending him nude photos or videos of themselves,” and that he had illegally obtained myriad other illegal images via the internet.
Gonzalez was taken into custody at his home and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked for obscene depiction of a minor, depiction of sexual conduct of a child under 14 years of age, use of an underage person for obscene matter, possession or control of more than 600 images of child pornography, and invasion of privacy with a camcorder. He remains in custody with his bail set at $100,000.
“It’s very disturbing. It’s also a wake-up call to everyone that there are predators out there to harm children,” Hoover remarked to the media.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
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