An Oak Harbor man who admitted to dropping a memory stick filled with child pornography at a city park apologized in court Monday.

Anthony Harrold said he couldn’t believe what he had done.

“I never really saw myself go down this way,” he said, “and it ruined my life.”

As part of a plea bargain, the 25-year-old man pleaded guilty in Island County Superior Court July 28 to possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Monday, Judge Vickie Churchill agreed with the sentence recommendation from the prosecution and defense. She sentenced Harrold to a year and a day in prison.

Chief Criminal Prosecutor Colleen Kenimond said she agreed to recommend the shortest sentence under the standard range of 12 to 14 months because Harrold had been completely cooperative.

“He took full responsibility,” she said.

On the other hand, Kenimond emphasized that it’s a serious crime to possess so-called kiddie porn. She said at least one of the children depicted in the images has been identified as a real child and a victim of sexual assault.

“In this case, the system worked,” she said. “Something was stopped early on.”

Harrold’s attorney, Darrin Hall of Coupeville, pointed out that the conviction cost his client a career in the Navy.

The case began when a man found a flash drive memory stick on the ground at Fort Nugent Park May 12. The park and large playground are popular with children of all ages.

The man viewed the memory stick on his work computer and found child pornography, so he reported it to police.

A detective analyzed the device and found that it contained two movie files showing men

having sexual contact with pre-teen girls. The girls are identified in the file names as an 11-year-old child named Hanna and a 9-year-old child named Jenny.

It wasn’t too difficult for cops to figure out who dropped the memory stick. It also contained a voter registration application that was filled out with Harrold’s name as well as a scanned image of his Navy ID card.

When police came to his house, Harrold admitted that he got child porn off the Internet.

Harrold volunteered with a program called Drug Education for Youth, or DEFY, at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. In the program, he came in contact with children of similar age as some of the children in the pornography he viewed, the police report indicates.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.