Smith County Man Sentenced for Child Pornography Violations

TYLER � A 45-year-old Flint man has been sentenced to federal prison for child pornography violations. Barry Porter Griffith pleaded guilty Wednesday to possession of child pornography and was then sentenced to 42 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis of Tyler. According to information presented in court, on October 31, 2012, Texas Department of Criminal Justice network engineers detected significant internet bandwidth being used by a state-owned computer to view pornography online. The engineers identified the user as Griffith, a state parole officer. They remotely viewed the websites that Griffith was accessing and determined that he was viewing child pornography from his office.

When approached by investigators from the Office of the Inspector General for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Griffith admitted to the conduct. He later met investigators at his residence, and surrendered two personal computers. Forensic examination of the computers confirmed that they contained images depicting child pornography.