A North Texas man was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison this week after having pled guilty to child pornography charges last fall.
Jared Capizzi, 45, of Garland, was arrested in 2022 after he was flagged by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for uploading materials portraying child sexual abuse to the internet. The Garland Police Department and the FBI’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation.
Ultimately, more than 10,000 sexually explicit images and videos of minors were found in his possession. While under questioning, Capizzi admitted to having downloaded the files on RandoChat, a platform where he engaged with others sharing child porn, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Capizzi, who was already a convicted felon on parole at the time of his 2022 arrest, was ordered to register as a sex offender and pay $52,500 in restitution to the identified victims that appeared in his files as part of his plea deal last October. He was kept in custody until his sentencing hearing on Monday.
A 15-year sentence is the minimum for repeat child porn or sexual abuse offenders, while a first-time conviction carries a mandatory prison sentence of five years. Nationwide, the number of child pornography offenses has gone down by 35.8% since 2016, according to a report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Nevertheless, the Southern District of Texas and the Western District of Texas are among the six districts seeing the most child pornography cases.
The sexual abuse of minors has been making headlines this past year in North Texas, with educators, respected community members, and more being targeted by accusations. For instance, last month, 44-year-old Natalie Sorrells was arrested by Rockwall County deputies on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with child sexual contact, as covered by The Dallas Express. She had been a well-known real estate agent and youth volunteer at a local church.
In Dallas, a total of 10 pornography offenses and 106 sex offenses have been logged this year as of March 18, according to the City’s crime overview dashboard. The victims’Â median age was 18, and they were predominantly black and Hispanic women and girls.
The Dallas Police Department has been laboring against a shortage of officers, which has made responding to crime in general more challenging. Around 3,000 sworn officers currently serve in the department despite a City analysis estimating that Dallas needs approximately 4,000 officers to manage crime effectively. For instance, police response times have suffered, as extensively covered by The Dallas Express.
Moreover, DPD has a budget of just $654 million this fiscal year. City leaders opted to allocate considerably less taxpayer money to public safety than their counterparts in other high-crime jurisdictions, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.
Meanwhile, Downtown Dallas continues to log more crime reports than neighboring Fort Worth’s city center, which is patrolled by a dedicated police unit that works alongside private security guards. In February, the Metroplex Civic & Business Association estimated that crime was eight times higher in Downtown Dallas than in Fort Worth’s city center.
