Former trooper sentenced

The U-S Attorney has announced that a former state trooper, living in Seneca, will be headed to prison. According to U-S Attorney Bill Nettles, Randy L. Quinn Jr. was ordered yesterday by Judge Michelle Childs to serve three years in prison for possession of child pornography. Quinn is 34 years old. According to the government’s announcement, “Evidence presented at the change of plea hearing established that in May 2011 agents with the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Investigations were conducting an on-line Internet investigation to identify individuals possessing and sharing child pornography in the upstate of South Carolina. Agents located a computer on the network sharing approximately 49 files, and of those files, several had file names that indicated they may contain child pornography. Agents initiated a download from the files listed for sharing and discovered that the files were indeed child pornography. Based on the IP address of the computer, agents traced the computer to Quinn’s home. On June 7, 2011, agents executed the warrant at the house. Agents seized a laptop computer and found thousands of images of child pornography. Agents also discovered that Quinn, while on duty at Bike Week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, photographed unsuspecting minor girls in swimsuits as they played on the beach.” The case against Quinn was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.