Border Patrol Agent Caught Distributing Child Pornography; One Of Many Arrested In Bust

0
1308

Psychologists say that child abusers do not change. Instead, they repeat their soul-crushing crimes again and again. How could this story have a satisfactory ending?

U.S. Border Patrol agent, Keith Hook, of Oswego, New York was arrested for distributing 34 child pornography photos and two videos showing “child sex” over the internet between April and May of 2018. The 54-year-old agent used his iPod and Kik Messenger apps to commit his odious crimes.

Should the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York win its case against the man, he could serve between five to 20 years in prison. He could also be fined up to $250,000. Naturally, he would register as a sex offender upon his release.

This was only the latest case of child pornography and exploitation among border agents within a year. Just last month former Border Patrol agent Ernesto Padron was arrested for child pornography while he was working at a shelter for detained immigrant children.

Padron resigned in 2010 after the FBI caught him in a child pornography sting.  When he was arrested this time, he was working for Southwest Key’s Casa Padre shelter for kids. There were nearly 1,500 boys between the ages of 10 and 17 where he worked, and a whole wave of new children were expected.

Southwest Key has 26 shelters throughout the country and 17 in Texas alone. It is currently setting up another shelter expressly for young children in Houston, Texas.

A spokesperson for Southwest Key told Texas Monthly that when the organization discovered Padron had previous child pornography charges, it suspended the accused man until May 2017. At that time he was laid off along with hundreds of other employees. She said:

‘He was not convicted of the charges…and was cleared for unemployment.’

According to the publication, the district attorneys took such a long time that the statute of limitations expired in 2013. They attributed the length of time to a backlog of cases.

Screen-Shot-2018-07-03-at-12.09.28-PM Border Patrol Agent Caught Distributing Child Pornography; One Of Many Arrested In Bust Child Abuse Corruption Crime Donald Trump Immigration Politics Top Stories

Immigration and Customs Enforcement also captured and arrested Supervisory Border Patrol agent, Jason David. They arrested him for sexual exploitation of a child, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico.

 U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) developed the Project Safe Childhood in 2006 to address this problem. Perhaps the DOJ needs a better approach.

Twitter world flew off of the pages. Check out some of our favorite tweets below:

Screen-Shot-2018-07-03-at-12.09.55-PM Border Patrol Agent Caught Distributing Child Pornography; One Of Many Arrested In Bust Child Abuse Corruption Crime Donald Trump Immigration Politics Top Stories

Screen-Shot-2018-07-03-at-12.10.30-PM Border Patrol Agent Caught Distributing Child Pornography; One Of Many Arrested In Bust Child Abuse Corruption Crime Donald Trump Immigration Politics Top Stories

Screen-Shot-2018-07-03-at-12.10.17-PM Border Patrol Agent Caught Distributing Child Pornography; One Of Many Arrested In Bust Child Abuse Corruption Crime Donald Trump Immigration Politics Top Stories

Screen-Shot-2018-07-03-at-12.10.52-PM Border Patrol Agent Caught Distributing Child Pornography; One Of Many Arrested In Bust Child Abuse Corruption Crime Donald Trump Immigration Politics Top Stories

Screen-Shot-2018-07-03-at-12.11.04-PM Border Patrol Agent Caught Distributing Child Pornography; One Of Many Arrested In Bust Child Abuse Corruption Crime Donald Trump Immigration Politics Top Stories

Featured Image via Getty Images/Don Barletti.