BY SUSAN BRYANT

sbryant@tnonline.com

Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan has announced a former agent with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office was sentenced to state prison for possession of child sexual abuse material.

According to Holihan in an April 1 press release, Joshua Gonzalez, 41, of South Whitehall Township, pleaded guilty in January to 20 counts of possession of child pornography, a felony of the third degree.

Gonzalez was sentenced March 31 at a hearing before Court of Common Pleas Judge Robert L. Steinberg.

Prosecutors asked for a minimum sentence of between six and 12 years in state prison.

The Adult Probation Department prepared a pre-sentence investigation report which recommended a minimum sentence of 10 years in state prison.

Judge Steinberg sentenced Gonzalez to serve a minimum of three-and a-half years in prison.

In addition to the jail sentence, Gonzalez was ordered to serve a consecutive one year of probation.

According to the press release, on June 27, 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip that between Oct. 28, 2022, and April 12, 2023, someone uploaded child sex abuse videos to Dropbox.

An investigation by the Lehigh County Computer Crimes Task Force revealed the user was Gonzalez, who possessed thousands of images.

The investigation was conducted by South Whitehall Police Detective Tyler Doherty and the Officer David M. Petzold Memorial Digital Forensics Laboratory of Lehigh County with the full cooperation of the Office of the Attorney General.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorney Christine F. Murphy.