A federal attorney in California refused to prosecute a NASA intern who was caught with nearly 1000 images of child pornography on his computer, according to a Inspector General’s report obtained by The Daily Caller.

While the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California refused to prosecute Arthemuel Panes Hernaez, an intern with NASA, for downloading child pornography on his personal laptop while in the workplace, the reason for their refusal to prosecute Hernaez was redacted from a report provided by the office of the NASA Inspector General.

The report from the NASA IG found “that a NASA intern was downloading child pornographic material onto his personal laptop” on December 5, 2014.

“On December 10, 2014, the RA coordinated with (redacted) Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA), US Attorney’s Office (USAO), Northern District of California, San Jose, CA and briefed him on all aspects of this investigation,” the report said.

“(Redacted) stated that his office formally declined to prosecute Hernaez based on (redacted).”

Hernaez allowed investigators to search his laptop, which “confirmed the presence of images and videos on the computer that appeared to depict naked underage children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”

Investigators subsequently informed Hernaez that “he did not have to at anything and he was free to leave.”

“I made a mistake. I will never do it again. I have child porn. Why am I not getting arrested,” Hernaez asked investigators, confessing to downloading and viewing child pornography despite being aware doing so was illegal.

While the U.S. Attorney in Northern California refused to prosecute Hernaez, an assistant attorney in the office suggested investigators file charges through the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office.

Hernaez was subsequently arrested in his NASA office on January 14, 2015, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, and was sentenced to four months in a county prison, three years of probation, and ordered to pay over $1900 in fines and fees. He must also register as a sex offender.

The judge presiding over the case was reportedly concerned a longer prison sentence would cost Hernaez his NASA internship, according to Santa Clara Assistant District Attorney Terry Harman.

“Four months is not out of the question, but six months to a year is the standard,” Harman told The Daily Caller. “Four months is a bit out of the range, for sure.”

A change in California law regarding possession of child pornography would have allowed prosecutors to seek additional jail time had Hernaez been caught one month earlier.

“This incident for him occurred in December 2014. In January 2015, the law was changed to where we can add enhancement if there were more than 600 images,” Harman added. “That would have applied to this guy, because this guy had about 1000 images.”

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