Former "Officer of the Year" Sentenced To Life In Prison For Child Porn.

Former "Officer of the Year" arrested in child porn case.

Former Port St. Lucie Cop Sentenced To Life In Prison For Child Porn.

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A former Port St. Lucie police officer was sentenced to life in prison for child pornography.

In February, Michael Edwin Harding, pleaded guilty to three counts of possession and distribution of material involving sexual exploitation of minors, attempting to coerce and enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity and production of child pornography.

According to court documents between July 23rd and August 4th, 2015, Harding posted a number of pictures videos to a chat room which depicted children engaging in sexually explicit acts.

On September 22nd, homeland security agents executed a federal search warrant at Harding’s home and seized his computer, cell phone and a thumb drive.

An analysis found they contained hundreds of pictures and videos of children engaged in sex acts with adults.

Harding, 28, also attempted to coerce and entice a minor to engage in sexual activity over the Internet. Chat messages stored on his phone show a conversation he had with another person. Both claimed to have custody of children who they would trade for sexual activity.

Absolutely horrible and disgusting but even worse when a cop commits this crime.

Our system is a bit backwards.

When cops commit crimes, for some reason, the government gives them more leniency than the average citizen.

It should be the opposite. They are entrusted with upholding the law and as such should face harsher penalties.

In this case, it looks like they prosecuted to the fullest extent.

He better hope they let him spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement.

If only they had that facial recognition software...could have prevented this.

Haven't these people heard of strip joints, why use children for your kicks. I know there's an evolutionary explaination for it but adleast they are finding em I suppose. Too late though

Niiiicccce, life in prison..the only cure other than meeting the expiration date. I wonder if this will be appealed? I hope not as those given power over us should be held to a higher standard.

a reply to: gladtobehere
Statistically, those in "authority" are more likely to commit crime than the average citizen. Or so I've read, anyway. This guy is just one of literally thousands of people in state or government positions that are guilty of a crime of this nature.

Anyone remember some years back when more than 5000 employees of the Pentagon purchased child porn, and the investigation was halted after 8 months?
Or how about the several CPS employees arrested for child porn?
Or the head of Cyber Security for production and distribution of child porn?
The list goes on and on.

My point being, this guy is not only a token prosecution, he's connected to others above him. I'd bet on it.

I know I tend to be overly conspiracy minded at times, but I get suspicious when I see stories like this.

It seems to me that real pedophiles with connections don't seem to be exposed until after they die (Saville, for example) if at all. They seem to have a network of protection. On the other hand, it wouldn't be too hard to plant the type of evidence that the article lays out. The police collect a persons computer, phone, and other electronics and then all these pictures, videos, and chat messages appear in memory. It would be a pretty easy way to get someone out of the way if they were a problem to someone.

It just seems odd to me that they can target an individual, compile all this evidence, and put them away. But when there is evidence of a high level pedophile network, nothing much seems to happen until the story quietly goes away.

a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Because this cop doesn't have the means to fight it at the level those powerful people do.

What a dirtbag. They should castrate the sob before they send him to prison.

Send him to general population......

a reply to: gladtobehere

Just goes to show you, we really don't know what kind of person someone truly is. Someone who engages in child pornography or any other type of crime can be a friend, next door neighbor, clergy, or in this case a cop! You never know what occupies the minds in these sickos.

originally posted by: Slanter
He better hope they let him spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement.

Yeah Pedo and cop...... Both make you a death target on there own.

Pedocop? Talk about dead meat, think you got a better chance of surviving a bout of ebola after drinking the radioactive slime form Chernobyl s reactor core.

His life is not going to a long or pretty one.

a reply to: gladtobehere

May he be joined by the rest, and physically mangled for life, at least 100-fold as damaging as the damage he has contributed to innocents.

How does someone with such predilictions become a member of law enforcement? It's getting to the point that they should just stop the charade of physcological tests, etc., and just let whoever wants the job grab a gun and a badge and have at it.

a reply to: dogstar23

"Do you plan to disseminate kiddie porn after we hire you?" is not one of the questions in a psych screen.

Good Christ life must be hard with such a chicken little outlook on things.

a reply to: VictorVonDoom
Just to add more info: I remember a TV show " To catch a predator" some years back they did some excellent work but it backfired when they started catching guys in law enforcement, DA and I believe a judge.

May he rot slowly.

The Kay Griggs interview looks more true every day.

For a cop to get life he must have been pretty prolific, the world is infinitely better off without him walking around in it.

He'll be sent into protective custody to do his stretch but hopefully a guard forgets to lock a gate sometime.