Connecticut- www.ctlawtribune.com- A lawyer from Orange has been sentenced to 5 ½ years in federal prison for operating a child pornography web site.
Forty-six-year-old Eric Gaynor, a solo whose law office was in New Haven, was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in Hartford. Prosecutors say he ran a porn Internet site for two years that displayed images and offered to sell or rent videos of young boys who were naked, partially clothed or engaged in sexual activity.
Gaynor’s practice focused on landlord-tenant law, commercial and residential leases, real estate closings and vehicle accident injuries. He had served on the Connecticut Bar Association’s membership services committee, and at one point was the panel’s chairman. He also taught continuing legal education seminars for the CBA on landlord-tenant law.
His lawyer, Hugh O’Keefe of New Haven’s Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante, told the Law Tribune in January, when Gaynor pleaded guilty to a single count of receipt of child pornography, that Gaynor “was and is a highly reputed lawyer in the area and had a successful practice.”
The sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Christopher F. Droney in Hartford was six months longer than the mandatory minimum for the receipt of child pornography charge. “This case once again shows that with mandatory minimum sentences how one stupid mistake can mess up an otherwise exemplary life,” Keefe said in January.
Last week, Keefe told the New Haven Register that, at the sentencing hearing, Gaynor “told a judge that he made a mistake and was remorseful and ready to pay for his mistake.”
Online, Gaynor went by the alias “Rick Coyo” and, according to authorities, owned and controlled the web site “coyoteee.com.” According to his indictment, Gaynor displayed images and offered to sell or rent videos of young nude males, some of which were engaged in sexual activity.
Included on the web site, according to the indictment, was a link to a poll on whether Gaynor should offer premium content on the site of “hot, hot bois, teens to twinks” for a monthly membership instead of sending videos by mail. The site also contained a link to “Coyoteee’s Video e-Store.”
In April 2003, Gaynor allegedly sent three videos available for sale from his web site to New Jersey for $188.96. The indictment further alleges that Gaynor sold a 47-minute video entitled “Sexyboys” to a buyer in Malaysia. Authorities say that the video showed two males under18 engaged in anal and oral sex. Gaynor was indicted in 2006 on charges of transporting, distributing, promoting and receiving child pornography.
Keefe said Gaynor still has his license to practice law, but faces sanctions from state disciplinary officials.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Chang. It was investigated by the Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force, which combines the resources of the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. •