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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Public Defender Denies Child Porn Charges

SAN DIEGO (CN) — A San Diego deputy public defender who worked in the juvenile division pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges after federal prosecutors said hundreds of photographs and videos were found on his electronic devices.

Deputy Public Defender David Lamb was charged with possession and attempted distribution of child pornography in a complaint filed under seal on May 24. He was arrested on May 25 and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Lamb was an assistant supervisor in the juvenile branch in 2011, according to ABC News.

Law enforcement agents in Toronto last August alerted federal agents in San Diego about online file-sharing of child pornography and videos that were pinged to an IP address in San Diego. The IP address was connected to Lamb's Internet account and Homeland Security agents got a search warrant for Lamb's apartment, according to the unsealed complaint.

They seized a Sony computer, iPad, Playstation, thumb drives, flash card, cellphones and DVDs. The search turned up 847 child porn images and 112 videos on Lamb's laptop and thumb drives, according to the 13-page complaint.

The United States claims that Lamb used the username "sdattorney" to seek, exchange and distribute child porn through an Internet file-sharing program. Some of the videos found on Lamb's devices were violent and depicted bondage, with teens and younger children bound and or gagged and crying in pain.

The complaint describes one file: "This file is a video of approximately 20 minutes and 33 seconds in length and consists of a compilation of scenes depicting prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct involving bondage and the children being bound and/or gagged and/or crying in pain."

Prosecutors say Lamb used a file-sharing program in which users had to accept other users as "friends" to order swap files or download folders containing multiple files.

One of the folders attached to Lamb's username was titled "babyrape," according to the complaint.

In online conversations, quoted in the complaint, Lamb allegedly said he was "always looking for rape videos" and described sexually molesting a little boy.

Lamb is represented by Benjamin Coleman, who did not respond to email requests for comment.

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