Ex-Middletown cop pleads guilty to child porn possession

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BOSTON >> A Cromwell man and former Middletown police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to child exploitation charges in federal court in Bridgeport.

Samuel DiProto, 63, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer to receiving child pornography, according to a press release.

DiProto was a police officer with the Middletown Police Department from Sept. 21, 1987, to Aug. 19, 2009, according to police spokeswoman Lt. Heather Desmond.

DiProto, who was charged in March 2013, downloaded child pornography from the internet from 2009 through March 2013. A Connecticut State Police detective discovered DiProto’s child pornography after logging into a publicly available internet-file sharing network, according to the court documents.

The investigator discovered downloaded images and videos of child pornography from a computer connected to the network with an internet protocol address assigned to DiProto.

He also faces charges filed in May 2013 of intent of cruelty to a child, reckless endangerment, unlawful restraint and risk of injury and is due back in court Sept. 16. After obtaining a federal search warrant, investigators examined DiProto’s home storage devices and found “several homemade photos that depict a minor female victim, approximately 6 to 7 years of age, bound with rope and gagged,” according to the affidavit.

DiProto’s conviction on the federal charges carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. The statutory maximum penalty is 20 years in prison to be followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.

Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Patricia M. Ferrick, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Connecticut State Police Colonel Brian F. Meraviglia made the announcement Wednesday.

This matter was investigated by the Connecticut State Police Computer Crimes Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Connecticut Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Smyth, Chief of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Unit, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj N. Patel in the District of Connecticut.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 2.