Former Metro cop pleads guilty in child porn case

After striking a deal with prosecutors, a former Metro police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to possession of child pornography.

Prosecutors originally charged James Henry, 37, with 10 counts child pornography possession, saying several images were found on an online storage account that belonged to him.

Henry agreed to plead to only one count of possessing a visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child.

Prosecutors said the images appeared to have been uploaded by Henry through his home Internet Protocol address or his cell phone.

“After consideration of the evidence we had, the amount of child pornography we discovered, we thought this was a fair negotiation,” prosecutor Jim Sweetin said.

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.

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 Metro in July.

Henry’s lawyers have said the images were never in his possession and that someone could have hacked into his account. They had also argued that there was no evidence Henry prepared, advertised or distributed images.

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 from Metro.

During an interview with detectives, Henry admitted to uploading the images of boys and girls and called them “captivating and titillating,” a police report said.

Sweetin called those comments “very concerning.”

His lawyers said that those comments were taken out of context and that he had been referring to pornography in general.

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

Sweetin also said that prosecutors would not pursue further charges “resulting from the evidence currently in the state’s possession.”

Henry, who resigned from the department last month, must surrender all of his computers, electronic devices and cell phones.

Defense lawyer Louis Schneider declined to comment after the plea hearing Wednesday.

Henry, who must register as a sex offender, faces up to 6 years in prison, but he could also be given probation at his sentencing in April. He remains free on $100,000 bail.

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