Carson City man arrested in Hawaii admits possession, promotion of child porn

Patrick Williams entered a guilty plea to charges of promotion of sexual performance of a minor Monday in District Court.

Williams, originally from Carson City, was arrested in Hawaii in July 2014 for possession of nearly 5,000 images and videos of child pornography. In the original complaint filed by then-Assistant District Attorney Mark Krueger, it stated that Williams was in possession of 4,873 videos and pictures of children under the age of 16 either engaging in or simulating or “assisting others to engage in or simulate sexual conduct.”

He was originally charged with multiple counts of possession of child pornography, but those charges were dropped and replaced by the promotion charge because it carries a more significant punishment.

Williams case has been pending since 2014. He fought extradition in Hawaii so the sheriff’s office had to obtain a governor’s warrant to get him back to Nevada in September 2014.

Though Williams pleaded guilty, he told the court that he disputed the manner in which officers say he obtained the pornographic material; however he still wanted to enter a guilty plea because he believed he would receive a harsher sentence if the case went to trial. He is arguing against the distribution charges because the program he used to store the pornography was a file sharing program, so when items were downloaded it would take pieces and share it to other networks in the program.

Williams is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 8, pending a psycho sexual evaluation.