Ogden man sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for child porn charges
Laron Thomas Zaugg, 50, of Ogden, was convicted of one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of advertising child pornography in December 2016 in U.S. District Court
SALT LAKE CITY — An Ogden man was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison Friday for receiving child pornography in 2014.
Laron Thomas Zaugg, 50, was convicted of one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of advertising child pornography in December 2016 in U.S. District Court, a news release from U.S. Attorney John W. Huber’s office says. The conviction came after he accepted federal prosecutors’ plea deal.
Zaugg received images and video of child pornography on his Yahoo email account between Aug. 26, 2014, and Dec. 5, 2014. He was indicted by a grand jury in April 2015.
The charges followed an investigation started by Queensland, Australia, police during an undercover operation on a Russian photo-sharing site known for trading child pornography, the release said. The investigation led federal law enforcement officials to Zaugg’s home in Ogden.
As a part of the plea agreement, Zaugg admitted knowing that the images included depictions of prepubescent children being sexually assaulted by adults.
Zaugg will be on supervised release for life after his prison sentence ends.
In addition to the federal case, Zaugg was also charged in 2nd District Court in Ogden with one count of sodomy on a child and one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, which are both first-degree felonies. The charges were filed in August 2015, and he pleaded not guilty to them in February 2016.
Though more details about the local case weren’t immediately available through state records Friday, court documents say he’s accused of sexually abusing a child under the age of 14 between 2013 and 2015.
His next hearing is scheduled for April 26.
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