A UW assistant professor was federally charged last week with allegedly possessing sexually explicit images and videos of minors on a hard drive.
According to U.S. District Court Documents, Jian Cai, 34, could face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted.
Before the charges were made, Cai was an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UW.
Cai was released from the Albany County Detention Center on March 24 after posting $30,000 cash bond, according to jail documents.
According to court documents, investigation on Cai began on Feb, 14 when an agent with the Department of Criminal Investigation examined a file sharing network and determined that one address was a possible source of multiple child pornography files. The agent then was able to download a child pornography file from the address.
On Mar. 8, Charter Communications responded to a federal summons request to identify the person subscribed to that address, and the results contained Cai’s name and physical address, according to court documents.
An agent downloaded another child pornography file from the IP address on Mar. 18, which contained 36 image files, according to court documents. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children determined 35 of the 37 images from the two downloads depicted children previously identified as victims.
Albany County police executed a search warrant of Cai’s address on Mar. 22. During an interview with two DCI agents, Cai said he used his laptop to search for child pornography with peer-to-peer software and that there were several hundred files located on an external hard drive in his home, according to court documents.
The external hard drive seized from Cai’s residence contained up to 1,000 suspected video and image files of children and adults engaging in sexual acts, according to court documents. One video of an underage girl was part of a known victim series identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
UW Vice President Chad Baldwin said in an email that the university acknowledges the arrest.
“The university is aware of the charges against him and is taking appropriate personnel actions,” Baldwin said. “We condemn possession of child pornography and similar criminal acts, and we are cooperating fully with law enforcement investigators.”
A court date has not yet been set for the charges.
