Man Who Sent Porn Under Cop's Name Remanded

JULY 25--A federal judge today denied bail for the West Virginia man accused of opening an e-mail account in the name of a police officer investigating him and then using that account to send out child pornography to dozens of recipients in an apparent scheme to frame the cop.

Sean Price, indicted earlier this month on a felony child pornography charge, will remain in custody until his September 13 trial, Magistrate Judge James Seibert ruled today. The 34-year-old Price, pictured in the mug shot at right, faces a maximum of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty of possessing illicit images of children.

Price’s legal troubles, however, may not end with that single felony charge. As TSG previously reported, Price is also under investigation for impersonating West Virginia State Police Sergeant James Kozik after the state trooper executed a search warrant on Price’s home and seized a custom-built computer, three hard drives, and a large number of computer discs.

Price purportedly responded to the April police raid--which came as part of a child porn probe--by setting up a fake Gmail account under Kozik’s name and using the bogus account to send e-mails containing “explicit child pornography” to 37 recipients, which “included but was not limited to law enforcement officials and members of the media.”

In an interview with TSG last month, Price denied opening the phony Gmail account and sending the illicit images. Instead, he claimed to be the victim of a police vendetta related to his longstanding animosity with local authorities and his affiliation with white supremacist organizations.

However, according to an FBI affidavit, Price admitted “sending the above emails of child pornography and making it appear to have been sent by Sergeant Kozik.” Price reportedly copped to the scheme during an FBI interview on June 29 (the day after TSG published a story about Price). During that interview, he admitted to borrowing a friend’s laptop and noted that he “traveled to free wifi zones” to send the e-mails. (4 pages)