An ex-border patrol agent was sentenced last week to 25 months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing child sexual abuse material.
Joshua Hartness, 45, of Colebrook, N.H., pleaded guilty in August to a federal charge of possessing child sexual abuse material. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to cap their prison sentence request at 30 months.
U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss ordered Hartness’ prison term to be followed by a 10-year supervisory period. He will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
Hartness was arrested in December 2024 after he was found to be in possession of child sexual abuse material between May 22 and Aug. 26, 2022. He was working for U.S. Customs and Border Protection as a border agent in northern Vermont at the time of his arrest.
After returning from a trip abroad, Hartness had his cellphone inspected at Logan International Airport in Boston in September 2022. That inspection revealed Hartness had over 350 images of potential child exploitation, according to court records.
It is not clear what prompted investigators to inspect his cellphone upon his arrival at the Boston airport.
Further investigation revealed that Hartness had been communicating with several girls online. Prosecutors wrote in court documents that the “nature and circumstances of defendant Hartness’ offense are quite troubling.”
After his arrest, Hartness was released on conditions after initially pleading not guilty. But in March, he was ordered jailed after he violated conditions of his release by trying to obtain a firearm.
During the sentencing hearing, Jonathan Ophardt, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the court that Hartness’ role as a border patrol agent was an “aggravating factor,” and urged against a lenient sentence.
In court documents, Ophardt wrote that Hartness “disgraced the uniform he wore by bringing with him to work a cell phone containing” photos of underage girls.
His crime, Ophardt said in court, “undermines the trust” the public places in law enforcement.
Hartness had requested a sentence of 12 months and one day at a facility near family in Massachusetts, according to court documents.
Emily Kenyon and Carmen Brooks, attorneys with the Office of the Federal Public Defender, noted in court documents that Hartness had no criminal history but wrote that he “acknowledges that any time he has already served does not begin to satisfy repairing the harm he caused to any victims, his family and friends, and the community at large.”
Judge Reiss told the court before sentencing that there was “a brazen element” to the crime. She later said that she was “not so sure” he understood the impact of his crime.
The judge recommended Hartness be incarcerated in a facility in Massachusetts near his family.
This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.