Marine arrested on porn charges

Tampa police say they found pornographic pictures and videos of children on a computer owned by the 24-year-old sergeant.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published June 30, 2005

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TAMPA - Nine months after Tampa Police detectives seized Cody L. Liberty's two laptop computers, they have arrested him on 11 felony counts of possessing child pornography.

Liberty, a 24-year-old U.S. Marine Corps sergeant assigned to U.S. Central Command, was taken into custody Thursday at MacDill Air Force Base and booked into the Orient Road jail shortly after 9 a.m.

He remains in jail in lieu of $27,500 bail, jail records show.

Tampa Police spokesman Joe Durkin said detectives began their investigation of Liberty in October, after a call from a technician for CompUSA at 701 N Dale Mabry Hwy.

The technician was transferring data between Liberty's HP and Compaq laptops, at Liberty's request, when he found pornographic images of children on the laptops, Durkin said.

Detectives seized the laptops and brought them to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's computer forensics experts in Tampa.

Analysts there found "hundreds of videos and pictures" on the hard drives - including several pictures and videos of children engaging in sexual acts, according to Durkin.

Durkin said Liberty admitted during an interview with detectives that he viewed the pornography, but he denied downloading it to his laptop.

Durkin said detectives notified military officials early on of their investigation into Liberty, even though the alleged offenses did not happen at CentCom.

Authorities believe Liberty downloaded the images while inside his home, 4010 W Montgomery Terrace near Port Tampa.