A Chantilly husband and father of three pleaded guilty last week in Fairfax County Circuit Court to three counts of possessing child pornography. He is Steve Franklin Garrison, 53, of 4312 Poplar Branch Drive.
HE WAS arrested Oct. 6 by the Northern Virginia-Washington, D.C., Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. He had been employed as a building inspector by Fairfax County since January 1998, but resigned from his job four days after his arrest.
Acting on information provided by Maryland Police Sgt. David Biser — a detective with the Combined County Investigative Unit in Cumberland, Md., — on Oct. 6, 2005 at 9:25 p.m., the Task Force executed a search warrant at Garrison's home and seized 26 CDs and a Hewlett/Packard computer.
In the affidavit for that search warrant, Biser wrote that a 19-year-old woman who'd reportedly met Garrison on Internet chat rooms said she'd had a sexual relationship with him. The document also stated that she filed a child-pornography complaint against Garrison in Maryland.
The woman reported that “Garrison has been bringing videos of a pornographic nature with him [to the hotel where they met],” wrote the sergeant. He also stated that the children in the videos were allegedly as young as 6 or 7 months old, and the woman “was upset that Garrison was looking at such young children in pornographic settings.”
Biser noted, as well, that a "quick review" of several compact discs Garrison had left with her — and that she'd turned over to the police — confirmed what she'd said about their content. Wrote the sergeant: "The images portrayed children, infants in some videos, engaged in a variety of sexual activity with adult persons."
The grand jury indicted the Chantilly man on March 20. He then appeared last Tuesday, May 9, in Circuit Court before Judge Marcus Williams. At that time, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kathy Stott presented the facts of the case, if it were to go to trial.
Williams then ensured that Garrison was entering his guilty plea, freely and voluntarily, and because he was, indeed, guilty as charged. He also advised Garrison that no agreement has been made with regard to his sentencing and that he could receive a possible maximum of five years in prison on each count. Judge Williams set sentencing for Oct. 13.