Former Metro officer gets probation on child porn charge

A former Metro police officer was given four years probation Monday on a child pornography charge.

James Henry, 37, pleaded guilty in December to one count of possessing a visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child.

Henry was originally charged with 10 counts of child pornography possession. Prosecutors said several images were found on an online storage account that belonged to him.

The images appeared to have been uploaded by Henry through his home Internet Protocol address or his cellphone, authorities said.

But his lawyer, Louis Schneider, said that only one image was linked directly to Henry.

“I’m ashamed of my actions,” Henry told District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez on Monday. “It’s caused embarrassment and life-changing circumstances, and nothing like this will ever happen again.”

The 12-year department veteran was arrested in October after an investigation into child pornography on his Google cloud account. Henry worked as a patrol officer in Metro’s Convention Center Area Command, which includes the Strip.

He now works in the air conditioning and heating business, cleaning ducts, Schneider said.

Google had notified authorities that someone had uploaded an image of child pornography in June, according to Henry’s arrest report. His account was closed, and the tip was forwarded to the Metropolitan Police Department in July.

Prosecutors said the pornography was uploaded at Henry’s home, not while he was on the job.

Schneider has said someone could have hacked into Henry’s account.

Henry did not know why Google closed his account, his lawyers have said. Henry learned of the investigation when he was placed on paid administrative leave by Metro.

In exchange for the plea, the Clark County district attorney’s office agreed not to refer the case to the federal government for prosecution.

District Attorney Steve Wolfson said he considered the fact that Henry was an officer, but that was “not an overriding factor” in the negotiation.

In what’s known as a “psychological risk assessment,” Henry was deemed a low risk to repeat the offense.

Wolfson said people facing similar charges are treated equally.

“I really don’t think these kinds of offenders need to go to prison,” Wolfson said, pointing to intense restrictions in Henry’s probation. “And if he doesn’t comply with probation, then he goes to prison. In these situations, under these circumstances, probation is appropriate.”

Along with several other conditions of his sentence, Henry must remain on house arrest for the entire term of his probation and register with authorities as a sex offender for the rest of his life, Gonzalez said.

He also was ordered to undergo counseling, stay off the Internet and not to live next to any parks or schools during the probation.

“I think the right thing happened here,” Schneider said. “This was a one-time incident.”

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker