Meaghan M. McDermott

@meagmc

A former town of Greece police officer has been charged in federal court with possession of child pornography.

According to a criminal complaint and other court papers filed Sept. 5 but unsealed on Tuesday, John Casey III is accused of having images of child pornography on his laptop computer and sharing them via a peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading service.

The charges stem from a two-year investigation that included federal agents downloading videos from Casey's computer and a search of Casey's home on Long Pond Road.

Casey was hired by the Greece Police Department on Feb. 7, 2011 and resigned on May 23, 2014, according to department spokesman Sgt. Jared René.

Chief Patrick Phelan said he could not provide any details of a criminal investigation being conducted by another agency. He said he was aware of the investigation when Casey resigned.

The charges are apparently not linked to Casey's employment.

According to court documents, Department of Homeland Security investigators looking into peer-to-peer file sharing programs in 2012 identified a user making available numerous files with digital fingerprints linked to child porn with an IP address that traced back to Casey. While agents downloaded a file apparently containing child pornography from that IP address at the time, no judicial action followed.

However, in March 2014, when an agent was again investigating P2P file sharing services, the agent came across a user — with an IP address that also later traced back to Casey — who had 64 porn-associated files available for download. The agent downloaded five of the video files, and determined that four of them "contained depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct."

A search warrant was executed at Casey's home on Long Pond Road on April 22 and two laptop computers were seized, according to court documents. Investigators found the same P2P downloading program that agents had used on one of the computers, and they also found digital links and other traces showing that child pornography had at one time been present on the computer.

A second computer taken from Casey's home, which investigators say had registered user information that not only linked back to Casey but also to his profession, contained "multiple images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct," including at least one image of a female infant being violated by an adult male.

Casey was arrested on Sept. 17 in Iowa and is scheduled to appear Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan W. Feldman in Rochester.

MCDERMOT@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/meagmc