Prosecutors: California investigaton tied child sex abuse videos to Butte man

An investigation of crimes against children in California uncovered ties to an IP address and suspect in Butte, and he now faces 43 felony counts involving child pornography, including two that carry 100-year prison terms.

James Herman Robert Johnson, 36, appeared for his arraignment Thursday via video from the Butte jail and District Judge Frank Joseph entered not guilty pleas for him on all 43 counts of sexual abuse of children.

Public defender Eleanor Maloney appeared with Johnson from jail but said a different defense attorney would be appointed to the case.

Maloney said she anticipates motions being filed for Johnson to undergo mental health evaluations, so she asked the judge to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.

Joseph did that, set the next hearing for March 26 and at the request of prosecutor Ann Shea, kept bail at $250,000.

Two of the counts accuse Johnson of transporting or distributing videos of children being sexually abused, one a girl who appears to be 2 years old and the other a girl aged 2 to 4.

Those counts, upon conviction, carry a mandatory 100-year prison term with no portion of that suspended for the first 25 years and no chance of parole during that time.

The other 41 counts accuse Johnson of possessing videos or images of children being sexually abused. Each of those has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

According to a charging affidavit by Shea, federal and state authorities were investigating internet crimes against children in Contra Costa County, California, in late 2021 and discovered ties to an IP address in Butte.

An agent gained access to a chat-room called “Babylovers” where individuals were sharing child porn and observed one user with a tag of “Hoopkid2321” sharing mega links to a cloud storage server in New Zealand.

Sharing the links allows others to access files containing child sex abuse material, or CSAM, and authorities traced the “Hoopkid” tag to an IP address in Butte where Johnson lives.

The information was forwarded to Butte Police Captain Jeff Williams, who obtained search warrants and seized cell phones and a desktop computer from the home, the affidavit says.

The devices were sent to a Montana Digital Forensics Unit for examination in early 2022 and Williams was notified this past December they were complete.

The retrieved videos show children, many younger than 8 and some as young as 1 to 2, being abused in various sex acts. The charging documents describe many of the videos in detail.