Former Agent for Pennsylvania Attorney General Sentenced to Prison for Child Pornography

— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs

A South Whitehall Township man is going to state prison for possessing thousands of images of child pornography.

Joshua Gonzalez, 41, of South Whitehall Township, was sentenced to serve a minimum of three-and-a-half years, according to Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan.

Gonzalez was a former agent with the Pennsylvania Attorney General, according to Holihan.

Here’s the statement from Holihan’s office:

April 1, 2025

District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan announced a former agent with the Pennsylvania Attorney General was sentenced to state prison for possession of child sexual abuse material.

Joshua Gonzalez, DOB 2/6/1984, of South Whitehall Township, had pleaded guilty in January to 20 counts of Possession of Child Pornography, a felony of the third degree.

Gonzalez was sentenced on March 31, 2025 at a hearing before Judge Robert L. Steinberg.

Prosecutors asked for a minimum sentence of between 6 and 12 years in state prison and the Adult Probation Department prepared a Pre-Sentence Investigation Report which recommended a minimum sentence of 10 years in state prison.

Instead, Gonzalez was sentenced by Judge Steinberg to serve a minimum sentence of three-and one-half years in prison. In addition to his jail sentence, Gonzalez was ordered to serve a consecutive one year of probation.

On June 27, 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip that between Oct. 28, 2022 and April 12, 2023, someone had uploaded child sex abuse videos to Dropbox.

An investigation by the Lehigh County Computer Crimes Task Force revealed that the user was Gonzalez, who was found to be in possession of thousands of images.

The investigation was conducted by South Whitehall Police Detective Tyler Doherty and the Officer David M. Petzold Memorial Digital Forensics Laboratory of Lehigh County with the full cooperation of the Office of the Attorney General.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorney Christine F. Murphy.