Boise man guilty of distributing child pornography sentenced to 19 years in prison
A Boise man was sentenced to over 19 years in federal prison for distribution of child pornography, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for Idaho.
Registered sex offender Judd Evans Ballard, 47, was found in possession of a cellphone with over 1,000 images and videos of child pornography and owned two Yahoo accounts containing uploaded pornographic materials.
Ballard was sentenced by Chief Judge Nye of the U.S. District Court in Idaho to 235 months in federal prison, according to a news release. He will be required to pay $9,000 in restitution to the victims in the videos and photographs.
Nye also ordered Ballard to serve a lifetime term of supervised release following his prison sentence, and to forfeit the cellphone he used to store the child pornography, according to the release.
According to court records, the investigation began when Yahoo reported child pornography uploaded to two accounts. The Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force determined that the accounts belonged to Ballard and located several files of child pornography.
A federal magistrate judge issued a search warrant for Ballard’s home in Boise, where the task force found the cellphone belonging to Ballard. A forensic examination of the cellphone found over 1,000 images and videos of child pornography. The task force also located evidence that Ballard had used social media to trade child pornography files with another individual, according to the news release.
Ballard was previously convicted of sexual exploitation of a child and child sexual abuse in 2013, and then again in 2017, according to past Statesman reporting.
An investigation in Ballard’s home in response to a criminal complaint in 2021 discovered more than 500 pornographic images of children on a cellphone.
Ballard is a registered sex offender in Idaho, according to Idaho State Police records.
