Airman gets 60 days for child porn downloads
A judge denies a deferred plea for what the defendant says was a mistake
A Bellows Air Force Station airman who downloaded graphic movies of young children being raped and sexually abused has been sentenced to 60 days in jail by a Circuit Court judge.
Bendy Sysomboun-Makilan, 26, does not deny he downloaded adult pornography, but contends the child pornography mixed in was a mistake.
Circuit Court Judge Michael Town denied a request Wednesday by Sysomboun-Makilan, who has an exemplary record with the Air Force and had served in Iraq, to defer his guilty plea to possessing and distributing child pornography in March and April last year.
Instead, Town sentenced Sysomboun-Makilan to five years' probation with 60 days in jail, beginning May 5.
Deputy Attorney General Kristin Izumi-Nitao had urged the court to sentence Sysomboun-Makilan to the maximum 10-year term and order him to undergo sexual offender treatment. She argued that Sysomboun-Makilan has exhibited risky behavior by admitting to using the Internet for sexual purposes, to chatting online to meet partners for cybersex, to hiding his identity and to misrepresenting his employment to others.
"We're asking for the open 10 term to reflect the seriousness of the offenses," Izumi-Nitao said. "Child pornography should not be taken lightly. We owe a responsibility to our community, and we have a duty to protect our children."
Child pornography was found interspersed among 1,207 movie files and 74 photo files of adult pornography that Sysomboun-Makilan, of Waianae, had downloaded into a file-sharing folder available to others to view and download.
Sysomboun-Makilan did not address the court because he has a pending administrative hearing where the Air Force will decide whether he is fit to continue serving.
Deputy public defender Jason Burks called Sysomboun-Makilan a hard-working and "outstanding" member of the Air Force who had never been in trouble before but made a mistake by not being careful about what he downloaded.
At some point he realized the numerous legal files he had downloaded contained illegal files depicting child pornography and deleted them, Burks said. But six were still found in his computer.
Results of a psychosexual evaluation showed that Sysomboun-Makilan is not a sexual predator with a propensity toward minors, he said.
Town's rejection of a deferral means he will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and be lumped in the same category as pedophiles, Burks said.
Izumi-Nitao disputed Sysomboun-Makilan's characterization of his actions as a "mistake."
"We understand mistakes can be made, but this was not," she said later. "We wouldn't be here if it was."
She cited reports showing child pornography is the fastest growing of all Internet businesses, estimated to bring in several billion dollars a year.
"Every person who possesses child pornography is guilty of encouraging further growth of this unspeakable industry," she said. "Every image of a sexually displayed child, be it in a photograph, video, CD or DVD, records both the rape of a child and an act against humanity."