Medford man pleads guilty to federal child porn charge - News - MailTribune.com - Medford, OR

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Medford man pleads guilty to federal child porn charge John Ehly Wednesday Oct 26, 2016 at 6:46 PM Oct 26, 2016 at 6:46 PM Nick Morgan Mail Tribune @mtcrimebeat A Medford man who messaged a photo of his son in a stroller to obtain child pornography faces at least five years in prison after admitting he owned hundreds of images of minors engaged in sexual conduct. John Curtis Ehly, 48, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Medford to a felony charge of receipt of child pornography. Jackson County sheriff's deputies arrested Ehly on Nov. 3, 2015, after a Department of Homeland Security's summons to the Kik Messenger app company and CenturyLink culminated in a warrant served at Ehly's west Medford home in the 300 block of Ogara Street. Ehly previously had admitted to investigators that he was part of a group sharing child pornography on Kik Messenger, a service seen as more anonymous because it doesn't require users to provide an email address or phone number, according to a court document.  Court records show he'd engaged with a user who uploaded videos and images with the service and used a photo of his for more files. The user reportedly asked Ehly, "U got any?" Ehly replied, "No but in 2 months there will be lots," and posted the picture of the toddler with his back facing a wall. During the investigation, Ehly admitted the photo was his son. Receipt of child pornography carries a minimum five years and maximum 20 years in prison, along with a minimum five years' post-prison supervision, and will require Ehly to pay restitution to victims in the images. He could face steeper penalties because of the amount of images, and because some images involved sadomasochistic situations, according to a clerk's reading of the plea document. He will be ordered to pay restitution to each victim in the images, and will forfeit the digital devices investigators seized, including several computers, a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone, USB thumb drives and other storage media. A sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 26 in Medford. Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MTCrimeBeat.