FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 6, 2015
Contact: James Hallinan (505) 660-2216
APD & the Office of the Attorney General located thousands of images of children engaged in sexual acts, some as young as 9 months old
Albuquerque, NM – Yesterday afternoon in Bernalillo County District Court, after a two day trial, the Honorable Judith Nakamura found Thomas Dolphus guilty of one (1) count of possessing visual medium of sexual exploitation of children under 18 years of age, and two (2) counts of manufacturing visual medium of sexual exploitation of children under 18 years of age.
The Child Exploitation Detail of the Albuquerque Police Department and Special Agent Lois Kinch from the Office of the Attorney General were able to locate thousands of images of children engaged in sexual acts, some as young as 9 months old on CD’s created by Dolphus.
Attorney General Hector Balderas commented, “Thomas Dolphus had thousands of images of children engaged in sexual acts, and although we are pleased with the outcome, this case highlights a tremendous gap in child protection that was created earlier last year when the New Mexico Supreme Court identified an ambiguity in the law. The court’s opinion caused multiple counts of possession in this prosecution to be reduced to one. My office fought hard to close this unacceptable gap during the last legislative session. A truly just result would be to hold an offender accountable for each and every image they possess that a child had to be victimized to create.”
This case was tried by Assistant Attorney General Anthony Long and Assistant Attorney General Greer Rose both of the Special Prosecutions Division of the Office of the Attorney General. Thomas Dolphus is facing up to 19 ½ years for this conviction and sentencing is scheduled for September 9, 2015.
For a photo of Mr. Dolphus please visit
http://app.bernco.gov/custodylist/custodysearchinter.aspx.
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