Photo Courtesy of Samsung
According to authorities, Hilario admitted to downloading child porn onto his phone.
By Forum Staff
An East Elmhurst man has been charged with possessing a loaded 9mm handgun and numerous files of children as young as three years old, depicted in a sexual manner or performing sexual acts.
“The Internet has replaced the proverbial back alley as the place where purveyors of child pornography gather to share their vile and disturbing videos and photographs of young children being sexually abused,” said District Attorney Brown. “It is important for the public to remember that the images and videos being exchanged are, for all intents and purposes, photos and footage of crime scenes as they depict real children being cruelly victimized both physically and emotionally and who will have to carry the painful memory of that which occurred to them for the rest of their lives.”
State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II praised the Queens District Attorney’s Office for their collaboration on this case. “Their hard work has resulted in the arrest of an individual allegedly contributing to the victimization of young children who were being sexually abused. We have zero tolerance for this type of criminal activity,” Beach said.
The defendant, identified as Milton Hilario, 42, of 97th Street in East Elmhurst was arraigned on charges of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, promoting a sexual performance by a child, possessing a sexual performance by a child and criminal possession of a firearm. Hilario was held on $15,000 bond/$7500 cash bail, and to surrender his passport and return to court on November 16, 2016.
According to the criminal complaint, an investigator assigned to the New York State Police Department’s Queens District Attorney’s Squad was utilizing a law enforcement tool earlier this year to investigate individuals in the New York City area who were sharing images and videos depicting child sexual abuse on peer-to-peer networks when he made a direct connection with an IP (Internet Protocol) address being used by Hilario. The investigator was able to download 51 image files, eleven of which depicted two naked females between the approximate age of nine to thirteen years old.
The same investigator used the law enforcement tool on two occasions in October to make contact with the IP address being used by Hilario. In one instance, he observed a list of files that were being shared by Hilario and downloaded a video file approximately one minute in length depicting an adult male sexually abusing a female child who appears to be approximately eight to eleven years old. In the second instance, the investigator observed a video file approximately one minute in length which depicted a female approximately three to six years old naked and being sexually assaulted by an adult male.
Last Thursday at approximately 6:00 a.m., a court-authorized search warrant drafted by District Attorney Brown’s Computer Crimes Unit and signed by the Honorable Elisa Koenderman was executed by the State Police on Hilario’s residence, at which time he told investigators that he downloaded child pornography onto his phone using a peer to peer software which enables uses to download movies and other video footage. Among the items allegedly recovered by the State Police were a LG GSM cellular phone and a Samsung cellular phone Galaxy 4. A forensic preview on the LG GSM cellular phone uncovered 25 images depicting girls under the age of approximately twelve years old being sexually assaulted.
A peer-to peer-network is a network that allows computer users to directly connect to each other via the Internet and exchange files. It allows such users to search for files contained on other computers on the network. Each computer on the network can access the files of the other computers on the network which a user has selected to share.
State Police also recovered a silver and black 9mm handgun and a magazine, which was loaded with six rounds of ammunition, from Hilario’s dresser drawer.
If convicted, Hilario faces up to fifteen years in prison.
