Man receives one-year sentence for child porn charge

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WATERBURY — A Naugatuck man who federal investigators targeted during a child porn probe earlier this year was sentenced June 20 to a year in prison.

Michael Maldonado, 33, whose last known address was on Galpin Street, became the focus of police attention after the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Crime Center was tipped off that someone had created an online profile on a photo hosting website.

The profile, which authorities later learned belonged to Maldonado, included a picture of a female toddler’s genital area, police said.

Police said they found more than 300,000 pornographic images and videos on his computer when they raided his home in February. He later told police he shared pornographic images and videos with other people online on a daily basis, police said. He said he downloaded child pornography out of boredom and that he knew what he was doing was not right, police said.

Some of the images police discovered depicted children as young as infants in sexual acts, police said.

He was initially charged with first-degree possession of child pornography, but prosecutor Terence Mariani agreed to reduce that charge in exchange for Maldonado pleading guilty to third-degree child porn possession.

Mariani said that he learned that Maldonado has problems with his heart and kidneys, which led him to agree to the reduced charge that carried a mandatory minimum of a year in prison.

“It’s basically in consideration of his severe health issues,” he said.

Maldonado, an obese man, declined to comment before the sentence was imposed.