Jury Finds Bryant Man Guilty of Receiving, Distributing, Advertising, and Possessing Child Pornography

LITTLE ROCK— A Bryant man has been convicted of five child pornography offenses, including receiving and attempting to distribute images of child pornography as well as advertising and possessing those images.

Cody Hiland, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Diane Upchurch, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Little Rock Field Office, announced that a federal jury found Joseph Keck, Jr., 61, of Bryant, guilty of five separate counts of child pornography. Keck was convicted of receiving and attempting to distribute child pornography images through a peer-to-peer internet program. He was also convicted of advertising those images to other users and of possessing images of child pornography.

United States District Judge James M. Moody, Jr., presided over the two-day trial, which concluded Tuesday with the jury verdict finding Keck guilty on all counts. Keck will be sentenced by Judge Moody at a later date.

“This verdict shows that we will not tolerate this deplorable, criminal conduct,” said U.S. Attorney Hiland. “Child pornographers create a market for the sexual abuse of children, and we will continue to aggressively prosecute this conduct in order to protect society’s most vulnerable victims—our children.”

Testimony during the trial established that in 2016, the FBI learned that an individual was sharing child pornography over the internet from a residence in Bryant, Arkansas. Investigation revealed that Keck stayed at this residence when not working as a truck driver. On May 9, 2016, the defendant arrived at the residence in a white Astro van, and the FBI obtained his two laptop computers, his external hard drive, and his cell phone. Forensic examination revealed tens of thousands of pictures and videos of child pornography. Those devices also contained evidence that Keck had downloaded child pornography and saved it to his computer.

Trial testimony also indicated that Keck used a file sharing program called Gigatribe to exchange images and videos with other users. Through his twelve Gigatribe accounts, the defendant downloaded and shared tens of thousands of videos and images of child pornography. He also advertised the contents of his child pornography collection by offering his password to other Gigatribe users. Evidence at trial included Keck’s Gigatribe chat logs, in which he told other users his name was Joe, he was a truck driver, and he liked young boys ages 12-16.

The statutory penalty for advertisement of child pornography is not less than 15 years imprisonment and not more than 30 years imprisonment. The statutory penalty for receipt and distribution of child pornography, as well as attempted distribution, is not less than 5 years imprisonment and not more than 20 years imprisonment. For possession of child pornography, the statutory penalty is not more than 10 years imprisonment. Each of the five offenses of conviction include a penalty of not more than a $250,000 fine and not less than five years of supervised release.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kristin Bryant and Michael Gordon.