Mandeville man pleads guilty to child porno charg

By Erik Sanzenbach
St. Tammany News
Published on Friday, January 29, 2010 12:26 AM CST

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Richard Higgins, 65, of Mandeville pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to a charge of receipt of child pornography, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten.

Higgins was arrested Dec. 11 when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement served a search warrant on Higgins’ home. ICE agents found evidence that Higgins was downloading child pornography to his computer, and several hard drives he had in his possession. According to the factual basis document, Higgins’ computers held 10,000 photographs and 2,500 videos depicting the sexual victimization of children, some as young as a year old.

U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan will sentence Higgins at a later date. Higgins faces up to 40 years in prison with a mandatory minimum of 15 years. When he is released, he be placed on supervised release for the rest of his life, and be required to give a DNA sample and he will have to register as a sex offender.

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