Former softball coach gets prison for distributing child porn

COBB COUNTY — Channel 2 Action News got exclusive access to a forensic high-tech lab that helped nab a Cobb County girls softball coach.

Prosecutors say Nicholas Mazza, 67, of Powder Springs was sentenced Friday to serve seven years, three months in federal prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release.

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He pleaded guilty in May.

Channel 2's Aaron Diamant spoke with a special agent in charge about how Mazza was caught and the pervasiveness of child porn in metro Atlanta.

The investigators who work on child pornography cases have one of the most difficult jobs in all of law enforcement -- not just because of the horrific nature of what they're dealing with, but also because of what it takes to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.

"They're getting smarter. Computer systems are getting bigger. You know, we're getting huge cases, bigger than what we normally would. So it's getting ridiculous," Department of Human Services investigator Dahlia Luallen said.

Local Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge Nick Annan told Diamant there's no evidence Mazza produced any of the images, but his position as a coach caused major concerns.

"That has access to children that is setting the stage to become a hands-on abuser, who is grooming individuals to the stage of or to the point that he can then take advantage of them,” Annan said.

Agents say local child porn cases are common and building them takes a huge emotional toll on the investigators who work them.

Cox Media Group