Arlington man sentenced to 15 years for child porn

A 33-year-old Arlington man found with hundreds of images of child pornography, some with violent content, was sentenced Monday to 15 years in federal prison, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Steven Lass pleaded guilty in April to one count of possession of child pornography.

On Aug. 20, 2014, a Midlothian police officer pulled Lass over for a traffic stop. The officer initially noticed that the front passenger seat of Lass’ car was missing and several tools and electronic devices were in its place, so he asked to search his belongings, the news release said.

After Lass consented to the search, child porn images were located. His belongings were turned over to FBI special agents, who found more than 650 images of child porn on iPods and 1,559 images on a thumb drive, according to federal court documents.

“Some of the images he collected on his thumb drive depict sadistic and/or violent content,” prosecutor Camille Sparks said in the indictment. Images of babies were included.

Lass was convicted in 2006 of felony indecency, court records show.

He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey.

The case was tried as a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Justice Department.

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Arlington man sentenced to 15 years for child porn."