Guilty plea in
child porn caseA UH student admits she
shared images over the Internet
A 25-year-old University of Hawaii junior who pleaded guilty last week to possessing child pornography faces up to five years in prison.
Lani Hansen admitted on Thursday that she had child pornography on her computer and that she used file-sharing software to make the images available to others.
Her attorney, Brook Hart, said Hansen subscribed to Kazaa, a file-sharing service, and had no interest in child pornography. But while she did not actively distribute the pornographic images, she made it available to those interested because as a Kazaa member, the more items you have available to others to trade, the higher your ranking in potential music-sharing possibilities, Hart said.
"Her involvement in this is entirely passive," he said.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Tong said Hansen knew she had child pornography on her computer and that her involvement was "certainly active" because she deliberately made it available to others on the Internet using file-sharing software.
"The only difference is, she did it more efficiently by using file-sharing software rather than e-mailing it individually to others," he said.
Hansen had been sharing files for at least six to nine months, ending in January. The pornographic images included still pictures and movie files of minors engaged in sexual conduct, he said.
Hansen discovered that her computer, which had been accessed by roommates, contained images of child pornography. Instead of deleting them, she kept them, including other pornographic images that were sent by people for purposes of trading music, Hart said.
Hansen, who is free on bail, faces a maximum of five years' imprisonment when sentenced May 24. But under federal sentencing guidelines she is likely looking at 46 to 57 months in prison, Hart said.
The case arose when a volunteer organization that tries to identify people violating child pornography laws on the Internet identified an individual in 2002 making available a whole directory of child pornography, Tong said.
U.S. Customs traced the screen name, "Juniper Kitty," of the individual back to Hansen. Agents who searched her Manoa home in January found she still had pornography on her computer, Tong said.
She was indicted by a federal grand jury in March.