Estates man charged with 751 additional counts in child porn case

When investigators arrested Joseph Clancy in January and charged him with child pornography possession and having sex with an underage girl, they suspected he’d end up with more charges. They were right.

State prosecutors added more charges Tuesday to the seven counts that Clancy, 45, already faced — 751 of them.

Assistant State Attorney Deborah Schwartz told Collier County Circuit Judge Lawrence D. Martin in court that she had filed an amended charging document adding the additional felony counts of child pornography possession.

The 751 new charges came after investigators spent the past four months analyzing computers, digital cameras, DVD and VHS tapes, and floppy disks seized Jan. 23 from Clancy’s Golden Gate Estates home.

So while he already faced up to 15 years in prison on one count of lewd battery and 30 years on each of six child porn charges, he now faces an additional five years in prison on each of the new counts, Schwartz said.

“The state filed an amended information this afternoon adding 751 additional counts,” Schwartz said in court during what was supposed to be a routine hearing for Clancy’s case.

“Wait a second. How many additional counts?” the judge asked.

“Seven-hundred and fifty-one, your honor,” Schwartz said. The judge shook his head and set the case for a July 28 docket.

Clancy wasn’t present during the hearing. His attorney, Scott Martin Roth, was in court and said he was planning to go to the Collier County jail later in the day to see his client and discuss the case.

“I really don’t have any comment on it. It was just presented to me in court this afternoon,” Roth said.

Clancy has been held in the jail for lack of $400,000 bond since he was arrested in January.

Since the arrest, Collier County Sheriff’s Office investigators had sifted through electronic equipment taken from Clancy’s home and found the additional images, Schwartz said. She wouldn’t say whether the photos or videos seized show the girl identified as the victim in the case.

“More charges may be forthcoming,” Schwartz said. “I really can’t comment on it because it’s still a pending investigation.”

According to the arrest report, the girl told deputies Clancy photographed and made videos of the two having sex, which took place for more than seven years.

The girl, now 15, told deputies Clancy and her mother had been in a relationship for about 14 years. The girl had lived with Clancy in Golden Gate Estates, in other parts of Florida and other states.

The girl, whose name won’t be published because of the nature of the case, told deputies Clancy began abusing her when she was 7 years old. She said she was forced to have intercourse and oral sex with him frequently, and he performed sex acts on her with a vibrator.

According to the arrest report, the girl told investigators Clancy got angry with her if she wouldn’t have sex, which he often sought while her mother was at work. He had often given her alcohol.

According to the arrest report, during the search of Clancy’s house deputies didn’t immediately find photos or videos showing the victim. But they seized his electronic equipment, sorted through all the images and found 751 different files depicting sexual conduct by a child, Schwartz said.

The prosecutor wouldn’t describe any of the images because they’re still under analysis. But some of the child pornography involved children other than the girl in this case, according to the arrest report. Other types of pornography, including some depicting bestiality, also were seized.

The girl initially went to authorities to describe the abuse after a relative told her she should keep in touch with Clancy after she moved away from him in November. According to the arrest report, the girl broke down when the relative called Clancy a “father figure” to her.