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(4:25 PM) Former Jamestown Resident Charged With Child Porn Possession

Travis Sanders

A former Jamestown-area man and current resident in Texas has been taken into custody and charged by criminal complaint with receipt and distribution of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

The case was brought to the attention of Homeland Security Investigations by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police National Child Exploitation Center. Canadian authorities had learned that an individual, later identified as 32-year-old Travis Sanders, was communicating with a person with the username “Damion Forsberg” on Skype. The report indicated that “Forsberg” regularly shared pornography that sometimes included children in the content, and was believed to reside in Buffalo or Florida. Subsequent investigation determined that “Forsberg” was actually Sanders, who resided at the time in the Jamestown area.

Law enforcement officers seized Sanders’ laptop and cellphone. A forensic examination of the defendant’s laptop computer revealed images and videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The preliminary examination of the phone did not immediately reveal visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct but did reveal social networking applications with the alias “Damion Forsberg.” Officers also discovered that the defendant was chatting with a self-proclaimed minor female in seventh grade, from whom he requested her Snapchat account.

Sanders was arrested in Texas and made an initial appearance in the Northern District of Texas. Sanders is being detained and will be returned to the Western District of New York at a later date.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Wednesday asked the anyone with information related to this case to contact the HSI Buffalo Office at 464-6070. HSI victim-witness specialists will be available to assist any parent or guardian should they need victim-related resources.

“If any members of the public have general questions or concerns regarding sexual abuse of children or would like guidance on how to discuss this issue with children, please call the Child Advocacy Program at 338-9844,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

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