Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Joshua Thomas Brown (28, Jacksonville) has pleaded guilty to possessing photos and videos depicting the sexual abuse of minors, including prepubescent children. At sentencing, Brown faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a potential lifetime term of supervised release. His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled. Joshua Brown’s brother, Jonathan William Brown (25, Jacksonville), pleaded guilty on March 16, 2023, to downloading and receiving photos and videos depicting the sexual abuse of young children. His sentencing hearing is set for June 26, 2023. Jonathan Brown faces a mandatory minimum term of 5 years, up to 20 years, in prison and a potential lifetime term of supervised release. Both men have been detained since their arrests.
According to court documents, in January 2022, an electronic service provider (ESP) documented several incidents involving uploads of child sexual abuse material from a particular online account with the username “Jonathan Brown” and other identifiers traceable to the same name. These uploads had occurred from July 2021 through and December 23, 2021. These ESP reports were forwarded to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office for investigation. This investigation revealed that at least one contraband file had been uploaded to the internet from Jonathan Brown’s residence in Jacksonville.
On July 8, 2022, agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), together with officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, executed a federal search warrant at Jonathan Brown’s residence, who was at the residence. During the execution of this warrant, agents seized several electronic devices, including computers, cellular telephones, and storage media. During an interview with law enforcement, Jonathan Brown stated that he used his desktop computer to download child sexual abuse materials, had started engaging in this conduct “a long time ago,” and since then has been in a cycle of seeking such materials on the internet, downloading it, and then deleting it. Forensic analysis of Brown’s electronic devices revealed hundreds of files of child sexual abuse materials, including a photo depicting a prepubescent child being sexually abused that Jonathan Brown downloaded from the internet on March 21, 2022.
Jonathan Brown’s brother, Joshua Brown, lived at the same residence and was present during the search on July 8, 2022. During an interview with law enforcement, Joshua Brown admitted that a particular cellular telephone that was seized belonged to him and was used only by him. Forensic analysis of this phone revealed that it contained hundreds of files of child sexual abuse material, including a photo depicting a prepubescent child being sexually abused. In total, Joshua Brown knowingly possessed more than 2,100 videos and more than 600 photos depicting children being sexually abused that were recovered from three cellular phones, a gaming computer, an external hard disk drive, and an online file-sharing account.
These cases were investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). They are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kelly S. Karase and D. Rodney Brown.
These cases were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Originally published at https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/jacksonville-brothers-plead-guilty-federal-child-sexual-exploitation-charges
