Full Notification

 A 24-year-old Carpinteria resident is in custody at the Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of possession of child pornography. Sheriff’s detectives arrested Giovanni Gonzalez at his Carpinteria residence on October 7, 2014 following an investigation and a search warrant.  Gonzalez was found to be in possession of hundreds of images of child pornography.

The investigation into Gonzalez began on September 23, 2014 when the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau received notification from reports generated through the Los Angeles Area Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (LA-ICAC) and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline Report. The reports indictated that the suspect’s Internet Protocol (IP) address was located in Santa Barbara County and images of child pornography were accessed through that IP address. Sheriff’s detectives opened an investigation and were able to trace the location of the IP address to a residence in Carpinteria. 

On October 7, 2014 Sheriff’s detectives served a search warrant at the residence located in the 4900 block of Carpinteria Avenue.  They contacted Gonzalez and found him to be in possession of hundreds of images of child pornography.  The investigation revealed that Gonzalez would pose as a 14-year-old girl online and use his false identity to entice his victims into sending him nude photos or videos of themselves. Gonzalez then traded the images online. Gonzalez was also found to be in possession of hundreds of other images and videos of child pornography that he obtained illegally over the internet.

Gonzalez is being held on $100,000 bail and is booked on the following charges:  obscene depiction of a minor, depiction of sexual conduct of a child under 14 years of age, use of an underage person for obscene matter, possession or control of more than 600 images of child pornography and invasion of privacy with a camcorder.

The Sheriff’s Office encourages parents to monitor their child’s internet usage to ensure that they do not fall victim to an online predator.