Law enforcementDHS agent charged with sharing child porn

Published 28 March 2013

A DHS agent was charged and arraigned in San Francisco on Tuesday for possessing child pornography. The large number of material prompted DHS Security to launch a lengthy investigation.

A DHS agent was charged and arraigned in San Francisco on Tuesday for possessing and sharing  child pornography. Most  of the hearing on Tuesday focused on the evidence against Gilbert Lam, 38.

ABC local reports that Lam was originally arrested over a year and a half ago on charges of exchanging child pornography over the Internet. According to investigators, there were eighty-three images and videos on Lam’s computers at his residence in San Francisco. The large number of material prompted DHS Security to launch a lengthy investigation.

“The actions of this particular defendant, given that he was a Homeland Security agent, are very deplorable and very disturbing,” Alex Bastian, spokesperson for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office toldABC local.

The U.S. Attorney’s office gave the case to the District Attorney’s office, which decided to prosecute Lam earlier this month. Lam was originally being held on $250,000 bail, but his lawyer Lucy McAllister asked the judge to release him on his own recognizance, saying he was not a fight risk. The judge did not release Lam, but lowered his bail to $80,000.

McAllister also challenged the charges that Lam actually shared the media files that reportedly contain child porn.

“[The prosecuter] indicated that she does not have evidence of recipients and she doesn’t have evidence of locations where the files were allegedly distributed,” McAllister told the court.

According to Bastian, however, the District Attorney’s office has all the evidence it needs.

“The defendant placed this child pornography on a file sharing program and in turn, made it available to the entire worldwide web to download. And one of the people who actually downloaded the material from his computer was an undercover officer,” Bastian told ABC Local.