Lexington Man Sentenced To 20 Years For Receiving And Possessing Thousands Of Child Pornography Images

LEXINGTON, KY -A Lexington man, previously convicted of receiving and possessing thousands of child pornography videos, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood formally sentenced Erik A. Hentzen, 26, and also ordered him to serve a lifetime of supervised release, following the completion of his sentence. Under federal law, Hentzen will have to serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence.

The evidence at Hentzen’s trial established that, from May 2012 to March 2013, Hentzen downloaded thousands of videos, which depicted prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

On March 23, 2013, investigators with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office executed a search warrant and seized multiple computers belonging to Hentzen; the computers contained more than 4,000 videos depicting child pornography.

The investigation started when authorities discovered that Hentzen had stolen the internet signal of a neighbor in his apartment complex. Authorities later located numerous child pornography videos that had been made available for download over the internet. Investigators then traced the location of the computer to Hentzen’s apartment in downtown Lexington.

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Jack Conway, Kentucky Attorney General; and Gary T. Hartwig, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the Office of the Attorney General’s Cyber Crimes Unit and HSI. The Fort Mitchell Branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case on behalf of the federal government.