MOHAVE COUNTY — It’s a decade in prison for a Lake Havasu City man busted with child pornography in his personal cell phone. Brad Busby, 51, appeared before Judge Doug Camacho for Monday’s sentencing hearing in Kingman.
A Lake Havasu City police department investigation began in September, 2023 when information from other sources was traced to Busby. A police report indicated that an internet service provider first discovered child pornography material in late July, 2023 and notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children which passed the matter on to the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The Lake Havasu police report describes ten videos involving child sex abuse material located in Busby’s cell phone. They ranged from :33 seconds to 1:59 in length and mostly involved young females engaged in illegal exhibitive behaviors or engaged in sexual activity.
One video involved a young boy being sexually abused, and another a young girl being forcibly raped in violent fashion, according to the police report.
Busby is convicted of two counts reduced to attempted sexual exploitation of a minor while multiple sexual exploitation of a minor charges are dismissed in a plea agreement.
Letters submitted for Court consideration for the sentencing hearing included support communicated by the defendant’s sister, and a condemning letter from a brother. Public Defender Paul Amann asked the Court to ignore other letters that lacked context and signature, but vilified Busby.
“What they amount to basically your Honor is character assassination,” Amann said. He noted that Busby has no prior criminal history.
Deputy Mohave County attorney Amanda Claerhout said Busby downloaded and stored for personal sexual gratification disturbing videos with stomach turning contents.
“They are very young children, a toddler in one,” she said. “He is a predator. He is a real danger to kids in our community.”
“There is no evidence that he has ever preyed upon anyone,” said Amann, in rebuttal.
Judge Camacho said he found one of the conviction-associated videos to be very disturbing, and deserving of an aggravated sentence. The Judge ordered that Busby shall serve lifetime probation after his ten-year prison term.
